Surveillance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has mainly relied on case reporting, which is biased by health service performance, test availability, and test-seeking behaviors. We report a community-wide national representative surveillance program in England based on self-administered swab results from ~594,000 individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of symptoms, between May and the beginning of September 2020. The epidemic declined between May and July 2020 but then increased gradually from mid-August, accelerating into early September 2020 at the start of the second wave. When compared with cases detected through routine surveillance, we report here a longer period of decline and a younger age distribution. Representative community sampling for SARS-CoV-2 can substantially improve situational awareness and feed into the public health response even at low prevalence.

对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 大流行的监测主要依赖于病例报告，这种报告因卫生服务绩效、检测可用性和寻求检测行为而存在偏差。我们报告了英格兰一项全国范围内的全国代表性监测计划，该计划基于 2020 年 5 月至 9 月初约 594,000 名接受 SARS-CoV-2 检测的人（无论症状如何）的自我擦拭拭子结果。5 月至 9 月初，疫情有所下降。 2020 年 7 月开始，但从 8 月中旬开始逐渐增加，并在第二波开始时加速到 2020 年 9 月初。与通过常规监测发现的病例相比，我们在此报告的下降时间更长且年龄分布更年轻。即使在流行率较低的情况下，对 SARS-CoV-2 进行代表性社区抽样也可以大大提高态势感知并为公共卫生应对措施提供支持。