Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated mortality data from England show evidence for an increasing trend with population density until a saturating level, after adjusting for local age distribution, deprivation, proportion of ethnic minority population and proportion of key workers among the working population. Projections from a mathematical model that accounts for this observation deviate markedly from the current status quo for SARS-CoV-2 models which either assume linearity between density and transmission (30% of models) or no relationship at all (70%). Respectively, these standard model structures over- and under-estimate the delay in infection resurgence following the release of lockdown. Identifying saturation points for given populations and including transmission terms that account for this feature will improve model accuracy and utility for the current and future pandemics.