COVID-19 surveillance and immunity studies up to March 2024
Updated 21 December 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-surveillance/covid-19-surveillance-and-immunity-studies-up-to-march-2024
The Surveillance and Immunity studies are part of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and are responsible for commissioning and funding studies to understand COVID-19 and other priority infections.
The studies are run in collaboration with a number of delivery partners, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS), research, academic and commercial partners.
This page briefly sets out the studies and their findings.
Winter COVID-19 Infection Study
October 2023 to March 2024
The Winter COVID-19 Infection Study (Winter CIS) is commissioned and funded by UKHSA and delivered in collaboration with the ONS.
It provides vital insight into the levels of COVID-19 circulating across the wider community and assesses the potential for increased demand on health services due to changes in the way the virus is spreading, which could be driven by the arrival of any new variants.
Previously, the sister study, the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS), was also commissioned and funded by UKHSA and carried out by the ONS during the pandemic, in partnership with scientific study leads Oxford University. It gathered and analysed more than 11.5 million swab tests and 3 million blood tests from April 2020 to March 2023. The new Winter CIS is a different study and will run from November 2023 to March 2024 and involve up to 200,000 participants carrying out up to 32,000 lateral flow tests each week.
More information on Winter CIS
UKHSA and ONS launch new Winter COVID-19 Infection Study – press release
Winter CIS: UKHSA publications
Vivaldi social care pilot
October 2023 to date
The Vivaldi social care pilot is commissioned and funded by UKHSA, in collaboration with University College London (UCL) and other partners including The Outstanding Society, Care England and NHS England.
It is creating a network of over 500 care homes that is underpinned by a data platform. This will improve our ability to monitor and help reduce infections such as COVID-19, flu, norovirus and urinary tract infections in care homes for older adults in England.
The Vivaldi social care platform has been co-designed with people who live and work in care homes and will connect lists of care home residents with routine data sets already held by the NHS, including hospital admissions, mortality data, immunisations, laboratory test results, and prescriptions, all using a common pseudo-identifier based on NHS numbers. This integrated approach will provide a comprehensive view of residents’ health and healthcare interactions.
More information on the Vivaldi social care pilot
UKHSA announces launch of the Vivaldi social care pilot – press release