Today’s Daily Covid Infections in the UK continue to decline, raising hopes that this third wave has already ended.
In the 24 hour period ending Monday, the Department of Health reported another 32.2322 positive results across the nation, a decrease of 19.4%. Since October 24, all except one day, cases have fallen week-on-week.
In the meantime, 57 people were killed within 28 days after testing positive. This was an increase on last week’s 40 deaths. Due to the amount of time that it takes to make someone seriously ill from Covid, death rates are a bit behind those in cases.
However, experts expect that hospitalizations and deaths will soon be a result of these cases. The release of new data on hospital admissions is anticipated later this week.
The move comes as a result of NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard being criticized for suggesting that 14 times more Covid-infected Britons are in hospital than they were last year. In reality, it is much lower.
And the Prime Minister urged people to come forward for their booster jabs — a key part of ministers’ plans to avoid curbs over the coming months — warning ‘too many’ elderly double-jabbed Britons are being hospitalised.
With 209,885 people submitting their names yesterday, 10.3million boosters were distributed. Only four out of ten eligible people have been triple-jabbed.
Department of Health data indicated that there were 24,979 reported cases in England. 2,012 were also registered in Scotland. Meanwhile, 4,303 were positive for HIV in Wales while 1,028 were confirmed as Northern Irish.
Infections rose the most recently on October 21st when there were 52,009 confirmed cases. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 9.3million people have received positive results from their tests.
However, the actual infection rate is far higher because of limited testing capability at the time and the fact that not all who are infected come forward to be tested.
Since the outbreak, an additional 57 deaths have occurred within 28 days, as compared to 40 people who died last Monday.
The latest hospitalisation data showed that 1,054 patients infected with HIV sought NHS care November 2nd, a decline of 3.2 percent compared to a week prior.
There were 25,840 doses of the first injections, and 14,610 doses for second. In total, 50.2million people over-12s (87.3 per cent) received more than one dose. The UK has 45.8million (779.7 percent) who are fully immunized.
A total of 10.3million people were reached by the booster jabs, which attracted 209,885 more people. These top-up shots, as well as the first jabs given to 12- to 15-year olds, form part of the Government’s Plan A in order to reduce infection this winter.
This is after Ms Pritchard said today that there are ’14x’ more coronavirus victims in hospital than there were last year.
The claim was circulated and picked up by a range of mainstream left-leaning news outlets such as Sky News, ITV, The i.
Ms Pritchard made the comments as she urged people to come forward for their booster vaccines and warned the health service was under ‘very real pressure’.
However, the latest data available from Government’s Dashboard shows that on Friday there were 880 coronavirus infections per day and 7000 inpatients in England.
Comparatively, in November 2020 there had been approximately 1300 Covid hospitalizations per day. There were also more than 11,000 Covid-infected patients.
NHS England later had to admit that Pritchard was talking about statistics starting in September. However, Covid hospital rates at the time were actually higher than they were last year.
Francois Balloux (director of University College London Genetics Institute) called Ms Pritchard’s assertion ‘nonsense’. He also criticised news organizations for failing to contest it.
Researchers warned the NHS chief executive of having abused the figures. Political commentators, however, said that it was the result either of incompetence or miscalculation.
Amanda Pritchard stated that the number of coronavirus-infected patients at hospital is 14 times higher than it was last year. But the latest data available from the Government’s dashboard indicates that on November 3 there were approximately 800 Covid admissions per day, compared to nearly 1,300 last year.
There were 7,000 inpatients in England on Friday compared to more than 11,000 patients in hospital with the disease on November 5 2020
Paul Mainwood is an Oxford University-educated, physicist. He tweeted his challenge to Ms Pritchard: “For those who don’t know what I am talking about.” Abusing statistics …’ by NHS England’s Chief Executive
Speaking to Sky News about the current NHS pressure, Ms Pritchard said: ‘We have had 14 times the number of people in hospital with Covid than we saw this time last year.
‘We also had a record number of A&E attendance and a record number of 999 calls. Looking ahead to winter, we know this will be difficult.
“And what we encourage people not to do is to take any precautions to keep themselves safe, so the Covid vaccination, in particular, or the flu vaccine.
NHS England claimed that Ms Pritchard was referring to August. They weren’t intended to reflect the current state of the country.
But the Government’s own Covid dashboard is based on hospital data provided by NHS England and goes up to November 5, slightly behind real time due to a recording lag.
Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs (rightwing think-tank) stated in a blog: ‘The idea that NHS England doesn’t have access figures that are updated each day on the Dashboard is preposterous.
Assessing the true pressure of Covid on the NHS has been made difficult because medics argue that other pandemic factors — like social distancing and isolation rules — have a knock-on effect on their ability to treat non-Covid patients.
A huge backlog accumulated in the aftermath of the pandemic has placed additional stress on these people.
But Boris Johnson has resisted calls from senior NHS officials to activate the country’s winter ‘Plan B’, which would see the return of compulsory masks and working from home, as well as vaccine passports.
Defending the decision to hold off during a visit to a hospital in Northumberland today, Mr Johnson said he is often presented with ‘different scientific advice and different scientists say different things’.
“We review the data every single day. We have meetings with NHS Chiefs every day.
‘The key thing you want to do is to reduce those pressures, which are building, on the A&Es, on beds, by encouraging people, particularly the over-50s, to come forward and get your booster jab.’
Johnson stated that he was visiting to examine the reasons for his visit.
“Unfortunately, you have a situation where the declining of the two original jabs is beginning to lead to too many older people being admitted into hospitals.
“Sadly, jabs can wane. It’s very efficient and we’ve already done over 10 million booster jabs.
“It’s wonderful, people get 95% more protection. I encourage everyone to book online, even if they’ve been gone for over 5 months.
Currently, anyone who is eligible can make a booking for their booster jabs starting five months following their first dose. They can also book an appointment by the six-month mark.
This is where experts believe you can increase your immunity to the virus.
Last month, Sajid Javid (the Health Secretary) upset NHS bosses by claiming that current pressures on the NHS were not ‘unsustainable’.
The threshold for the NHS’s winter admissions and inpatients is not set by the government or the health chiefs.
Last month, however Ms Pritchard acknowledged to MPs that her health care system has been unaffected by the pandemic.
Uncharacteristically optimistic modelling was also published by the Government’s Scientific Advisory Panel SAGE, which indicated that winter cases would naturally decline due to increasing immunity.
Even though half-term has ended at the end of each month, Covid cases have been steadily declining across the UK.
All but one day have seen an infection rate drop week on week since October 23. On average, there are 35,000 infections now, as opposed to 45,000 at mid-October.
Professor Jim Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford, joined a chorus of independent scientists in claiming that Britain’s third wave has already peaked.
He said he expects hospitalisations and deaths — both of which are lagging indicators — to follow in the coming weeks.
Prof. Naismith said on BBC Radio 4’s Today that cases are clearly falling and it’s definitely what they would like.
The comments were made by Ms Pritchard (left), as she encouraged people to get their booster vaccines (progress is shown right) while warning that the health care system was being put under “very real pressure”.
“The rate of hospitalizations remains high. It is over 1000 per day. The number of deaths is also tragically still quite high. There are just under 1,000 each week.
He added, “Of course as cases fall, we would expect that the two other things will fall in due time.”
Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group advising ministers on the virus — an influential sub-committee of SAGE, also struck a positive tone.
Although he stated the UK was not yet out of the woods when it came To Covid, he said that they were still a ways from the possibility of another winter lockdown.
Sky News interviewed him: “I believe we are a long distance away from thinking in these terms.”
“It is clear that the NHS will be under serious pressure if there are more deaths than usual, so there could be some discussions about how to limit that.
Leading experts believe that Britain’s declining Covid case count is due to increased immunity. This was caused by the combination of the booster vaccine and the recent back-to school wave of infected.
Dr Tildesley stated that the effectiveness of Covid’s vaccine booster program will determine whether a winter lockdown occurs. He urged everyone to get their shots.
He stated, “I’d hope that after a successful vaccine campaign, the idea for a winter locking down is still a distant dream.”
“But, it’s certain that we need further steps if there is not good immunity in the population. We need to make sure that people are encouraged to apply for booster jabs as soon as they become eligible.
Professor Naismith also stressed the importance of Covid booster jabs and said he eagerly awaited getting one. He said, “I am certainly looking forwards to getting mine the first time I can.”