COVID-19 First Positives (Second Generation Surveillance System) Dataset#
Last modified: 21 Oct 2026
1. Summary#
UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) is used to capture routine laboratory surveillance data on infectious diseases from diagnostic laboratories across England. This dataset comprises results from Pillar 1 swab (antigen) testing for SARS-CoV-2 (i.e. patients in hospital and NHS key workers) and Pillar 2 swab testing (i.e. the wider community at drive through test centres, walk in centres, home kits returned by post, care homes, etc.).
| Dataset Descriptor | Dataset-specific Information |
|---|---|
| Name of Dataset in TRE | NHSE_COVIDSGSS |
| Citation (APA) | Data Services, NHS England (NHSE). (2025). NHS England: COVID-19 First Positives (Second Generation Surveillance System). UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). https://doi.org/10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-04 |
| Download Citation | Citeproc JSON BibTeX RIS |
| Series | NHS England |
| Owner | NHS England |
| Copyright | Copyright © (2026), NHS England. Data re-used with the permission of NHS England. All rights reserved. |
| Temporal Coverage in the TRE | 04/2020 - 02/2024 |
| Geographical Coverage | England |
| Participant Count | 113047 |
| Number of Variables | 18 |
| Number of Observations | 177314 |
| Key Link | https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/data-provision-notices-dpns/sgss-and-sari-watch-data |
| Keywords | None |
| Latest Extract Date | 2024-04-26 |
| Specific Restrictions to Data Use | Only to be used in research with a focus on COVID-19. |
| Build a Data Request | https://explore.ukllc.ac.uk/ |
2. Metrics#
| Cohort | Participant Count |
|---|---|
| AIRWAVE | 15399 |
| ALSPAC | 2438 |
| BCS70 | 2599 |
| BIB | 5661 |
| ELSA | 1817 |
| EPICN | 2414 |
| EXCEED | 3157 |
| GLAD | 33898 |
| MCS | 7079 |
| NCDS58 | 1968 |
| NEXTSTEP | 2308 |
| NIHRBIO_COPING | 7182 |
| NSHD46 | 407 |
| TEDS | 3592 |
| TRACKC19 | 6503 |
| TWINSUK | 4096 |
| UKHLS | 2488 |
| UKREACH | 10041 |
3. Version History#
| Version | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version Date | 21 Dec 2022 | 13 Apr 2023 | 26 Apr 2024 | 09 Sep 2025 |
| Number of Variables | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| Number of Observations | 105601 | 113450 | 137223 | 177314 |
| DOI | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-01 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-02 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-03 | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-04 |
| Change Log | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-01/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-02/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-03/activities | 10.71760/ukllc-dataset-00392-04/activities |
4. Documentation#
We are currently building a documentation storage system which will host useful documents related to datasets and data owners. We will surface these documents on Guidebook.
5. Useful Syntax#
Below we will include syntax that may be helpful to other researchers in the UK LLC TRE. For longer scripts, we will include a snippet of the code plus a link to the UK LLC GitHub repository where you can find the full scripts.