Stomach bug outbreaks in England fell by more than half during the first six months of lockdown, a study has found.

Researchers believe changes in human behaviour due to coronavirus restrictions had a large impact on the prevalence of gastrointestinal infections.

They concluded that if people maintained good hygiene practices picked up during COVID-19, such as hand washing and social distancing, “we could potentially see sustained reductions in the burden of gastrointestinal illnesses”.

According to the study, there was a 52% decrease of such outbreaks reported to health agencies in the first six months of lockdown compared to the five-year average for the same period.

Reported outbreaks dropped from 3,208 to 1,544, while laboratory cases fell by 34% from 42,495 to 27,859.

The report was published in BMJ Open.

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