U.K. Stops Publishing Key Covid-19 Statistics

The U.K. has stopped publishing certain covid-19 modelling data, as officials say it is not necessary as the country “lives with the disease.”

The country’s Health Security Agency announced this week it would no longer report the growth and reproductive rates of infections as part of its standard publication schedule.

The growth rate and “R” rate give an idea of how fast infection rates are increasing or decreasing around the country. In recent months, the U.K.H.S.A. has shared this information every two weeks. But according to the agency’s website, the most recent update — published December 23 — will be the last.

In addition, medium-term projections, which modelled potential hospitalisations and deaths on a fortnightly basis, will no longer be published from January 6.

What does the latest covid data show?

Friday’s R rate update gave England a result between 1 and 1.2. This means every ten infected people are likely to pass the virus on to between ten and 12 others.

England’s overall growth rate was between 0 and 4%, with covid infections increasing the most in the east and south west of the country.

At the height of the pandemic, these figures were much higher as the virus spread more quickly among the population.

But the changing nature of testing and reporting results also makes it hard to properly compare results from different time periods.

Agencies including the Office for National Statistics will continue to monitor the disease in other ways, officials say.

Why won’t the data be published any more?

The UKHSA’s deputy director Dr Nick Watkins says innovations like vaccines and medicines for Covid-19 have reduced the need for officials to publish this information about the diseas on a regular basis.

He said: “Vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase where we are living with Covid-19.

“We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in a similar way to how we monitor a number of other common illnesses and diseases.”

He added that officials would bring back this kind of reporting if necessary, saying: “All data publications are kept under constant review and this modelling data can be reintroduced promptly if needed, for example, if a new variant of concern was to be identified.”

How many people have Covid-19 in England at the moment?

Over the last week, nearly 37,000 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England: an increase of roughly 8,300 on the week before, or 29%.

More than 8,600 patients in hospitals and certain other healthcare facilities have tested positive for the disease, with 174 on ventilators.

Last year, the country experienced rapidly growing infections as the Omicron wave took hold. Across the whole of the U.K., nearly 100,000 people tested positive on December 26. The next day, that figure had grown to nearly 156,000.

Tests were available for free at the time, which may have impacted how many people decided to take them. Today, at-home rapid tests are available at pharmacies and other stores for the equivalent of a few dollars.