Understanding the geographical distribution of
COVID-19 through the general population is key to
the provision of adequate healthcare services. Using
self-reported data from 1 960 242 unique users in Great
Britain (GB) of the COVID-19 Symptom Study app,
we estimated that, concurrent to the GB government
sanctioning lockdown, COVID-19 was distributed across
GB, with evidence of ’urban hotspots’. We found a
geo-social gradient associated with predicted disease
prevalence suggesting urban areas and areas of higher
deprivation are most affected. Our results demonstrate
use of self-reported symptoms data to provide focus on
geographical areas with identified risk factors
