How likely are you to meet a Covid-19 infected person in your everyday life in England? BuDS has a simple system in place to help you understand the risk, and keep yourself safe. Read on for more.
Because Covid-19 is spread between people, it is vitally important to know how many infected people there are in your local area. BuDS produces a regular risk assessment giving this information to people in England. You can read these posts here.
The BuDS Risk Levels
To make it easy for everyone to understand the current risk, BuDS uses colour-coded risk levels. These are:


The ‘Busy Supermarket Test’
BuDS uses the ‘busy supermarket test’ to help you understand the risk. We tell you the likely number of infected people in a busy supermarket, assuming that there are 300 people in the supermarket (both infected and non-infected) at any time. This is only an estimate based on a statistical analysis of Covid across England, so in reality there may be more or less infected people when you visit.
As you can see in the graphics above, when Covid-19 infection levels (incidence) is very low, you might encounter one infected person in a busy supermarket every few times you visit, but not every time. As infection levels rise, you might encounter one infected person in a busy supermarket every time you visit. If infection levels rise even higher, you will encounter increasing numbers of infected people in a busy supermarket every time you visit. And, obviously, the more infected people there are, the more virus they are breathing out into the air, and the easier it is to catch Covid-19.
We Are Here To Help!
BuDS can help you by answering questions, providing information, helping you find practical support or help in a crisis or being a friendly voice if you’re lonely or isolated. If you’d like any help or support from us, message us through social media, e-mail buds-support@buds.org.uk or leave us a voicemail on 01494 211179. We’ll do our very best to help you.