Many areas across England have now gone months without enough Covid cases to justify the publication of their data, as the Prime Minister is urged to honour his pledge of following “data not dates”. The Telegraph has the story.
Over half of people in England now live in an area in which new cases of Covid have all but vanished, with some places not reporting a case in public data for more than a month.
Infections have been so low in areas with a total population of 34.5 million that Public Health England has redacted their latest weekly case tallies in order to protect the privacy of those – if any – who test positive.
These 4,307 areas could have had at most two new cases but potentially zero in the seven days to April 4th – and 1,091, home to 8.2 million people, have had their data suppressed every week since the end of February.
Around 20,000 cases are now being detected across England each week – a fall of nearly 95% from the peak of more than 380,000 during the worst week of the second wave.
At that time in January, only six neighbourhoods out of a total of 6,791 in PHE’s data had low enough cases to require redaction under data protection rules, as the more contagious Kent variant of the virus left few areas untouched.
However, many places have now gone months without enough cases to justify publication of their data.
Areas of Devon including Bampton, Holcombe, Westleigh, Lynton and Combe Martin have all gone 10 weeks with close to zero cases, while in Cornwall Towednack, Lelant, Carbis Bay, Probus and Roseland have gone nine.
On average, areas that have had their most recent weekly case total redacted are now in their third week in a row with close to zero cases, suggesting infections are staying low even after the recent relaxation of lockdown measures.
Conservative MP William Wragg said that the emphasis now should be on “data and not dates”.
It is good that we are making such strong progress and I would hope therefore that there should be no impediment to progress. If the roadmap can be accelerated, it should be accelerated.
Last month, Mark Harper, the Chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), said that the idea Boris Johnson is following “data not dates” could look “increasingly ridiculous” unless the opening of some things was “[brought] forward”. Infections rose week-on-week in only one in seven areas across England between March 28th and April 4th, which some MPs argue is not enough to excuse the continuation of the “roadmap” out of lockdown at its current slow pace.
Steve Baker, the CRG’s Deputy Chairman, suggested the “stellar success” of the vaccine rollout meant people should now be treated as “responsible adults”.
Worth reading in full.
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Steve Baker ‘suggested’ , sounds much too mild
Whilst ‘stellar success’ sounds sycophantic in the extreme!
0-2 cases in my local area when I checked a couple of days ago.
Zero in our area.
5 positive tests in my area, all one family and no cases! Our hospital which is functioning at below 50% capacity has the huge sum of zero patients with covid. But hey all the staff deserve a whacking pay rise to be paid by the poor buggers who have worked their socks off throughout this scam while homeschooling their kids because they weren’t ‘key workers’.
Am so p***ed off with it all now.
Of 307 deaths in the County last week, 5five had Covid mentioned on the death certificate. No cases in the two main hospitals.
My sentiments exactly.
Same here
The 10 Covidian Cult Commandments 1. Thou shalt remain terrified of this deadly virus [Though if you’re fit and under 69 years old your survival rate is 99.7%] 2. Thou shalt not question that Lockdowns save lives [Despite the clear lack of scientific data supporting the protocol] 3. Thou shalt not question house-arrest self-isolation [Even if you’re not ill, and have the tests to prove it] 4. Thou shalt not question the testing of school children daily [Though they’re the least at risk age group] 5. Thou shalt not question standing at least 2m away from strangers [Even if you and they are completely healthy] 6. Thou shalt not question the wearing of facial masks [Though they cannot stop a micron size bug transmission] 7. Thou shalt swiftly choose to be vaccinated [Though the tools are experimental and don’t give you immunity from the virus] 8. Thou shalt claim the vaccines are totally safe [Though the trials are not finished, and many have died from blood clots] 9. Thou shalt sign-up, and download the vaccine passports [Though the IT glitches will be infuriatingly frequent and many] 10.Thou shalt not question any of the above!! [Though it’s all completely illogical bollocks… Read more »
What will it take for Conservative MPs to lose confidence in their leader? If he made a precautionary sacrifice of their first-born?
Nope, not good enough; Bozo would have to insist that they lose confidence in him.
No. Most would go along with that. Possibly they’d get upset if he threatened their seat.
The wonderful informscotland.uk site has stopped producing graphs – presumably because there is nothing to report in the whole of Scotland
“More Than Half of People in England Living In Areas with Almost No New Covid Cases”
Whatever a case is. Pretty meaningless.
Alternative headline:
“Whole population of UK subjected to various forms of psychological warfare, house arrest, other costly, damaging and futile measures for more than a year, on pre-text of non-existent ‘medical emergency'”
Off topic, but I’ve just started watching The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s not virus related but it is uncomfortable viewing. 3rd episode in; Keep your eyes open…
Dr Naomi Wolf on Vaccine Passports and why they Equal Slavery – The Daily Clout
https://theduran.com/dr-naomi-wolf-on-vaccine-passports-and-why-they-equal-slavery-the-daily-clout/
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics
This article states …” as the more contagious Kent variant of the virus left few areas untouched”. The link takes you to a Telegraph article which indicates the Kent variant is no more deadly than the original but, since I don’t have a subscription, I cannot see what else it says. Is the Kent variant more contagious and does it have the code B1.1.7? The Scottish Government Strategic Framework for Covid document is littered with this code indicating it is very contagious.
And don’t forget that so-called ‘cases’ are most likely erroneous detections via flawed techniques of one sort or another. Thus no justification for any ‘lockdown’ policies.
Yes but how many tests are they still doing?
Edinburgh has 111 areas and 93 of them are in the no reports category. Yet we have another 6 weeks to go before we enter the levels again. We will then go into level 3 but the data suggests we should be in level 1 now. So much for data over dates.
Act like you’ve got it?
How about acting normal?
Most people seem to have forgotten what normal is! Today I’ve witnessed my neighbours have a socially distanced get together in their garden and I had to resist a strong urge to shout “tossers” over the fence. Makes my SO angry!
Their problem, Sunny.
Scotland was. at the forefront of an undeclared Zero Covid strategy spearheaded by the Dentist of Doom Prof Jason Leitch. This suited Sturgeon and her clique but there is an election underway. Leitch likes the sound of his own voice and as a lockdown hawk who is unhappy about Scotland loosening off too quickly.
As a behavioural researcher I am appalled at the crooked fear messaging promoted by people like Leitch, Bauld and Shridhar. The Scottish government are running anxiety-inducing commercial featuring Leitch. In these he promotes “new strains of the virus as more dangerous” telling us us to get the vaccine but keeps intoning that “it won’t get us out of this”.
Most of it is nonsense. People here are getting restive and the rare good weather and the clear lack of hospitalisation and deaths may mean that Leitch, and the other riders of the apocalypse will soon have to dismount. That said like Ferguson, Scally et al they suffer from a protective grandiosity and have really enjoyed their moment in the sun. They won’t leave the stage willingly.