Seems a very long time ago that I gave an update (two whole weeks and a whole heap of chatter) so probably worth highlighting the stats around the current situation.
Despite all of the noise from the press we have once again found ourselves with less in hospital for the 4th week running, only marginal (4%) but a definite downward trend at a point in time when the cases are going up. As of yesterday there are 5,829 in hospital in England which is the lowest point since October 17th, and compared with Dec 1 2020 (13,507) puts us in a much better place than last year going into the worst period for viruses.
Conversely it is worth mentioning deaths. Unfortunately as this is a new virus we will see an increase in deaths, added to that the number of missed diagnoses over the past couple of years probably means that there have been prognoses missed that could potentially have been dealt with. For the the year to date we have just short of 50k more deaths than the 5 year average (pre-covid figures 2015-2019) with 1,753 excess deaths for the last week measured (week to 19th Nov). For the last 2 years we have seen 80k excess in 2020 and 50k in 2021 so far, both figures are incomplete as we didn't start to see excess deaths in 2020 until March and we still have a month to go in 2021 but I think it paints a picture of how much we have been hit by this. The 5YA for the full year pre-covid was just short of 540k deaths in England and Wales, 2021 will see that figure increase by 10%.
On a positive note and looking forward, we have put ourselves in a strong position with vaccinations and the measures we have taken. Let's not let it slip now as we go into the worst season for this - get vaccinated, wear a mask and take care.
Despite all of the noise from the press we have once again found ourselves with less in hospital for the 4th week running, only marginal (4%) but a definite downward trend at a point in time when the cases are going up. As of yesterday there are 5,829 in hospital in England which is the lowest point since October 17th, and compared with Dec 1 2020 (13,507) puts us in a much better place than last year going into the worst period for viruses.
Conversely it is worth mentioning deaths. Unfortunately as this is a new virus we will see an increase in deaths, added to that the number of missed diagnoses over the past couple of years probably means that there have been prognoses missed that could potentially have been dealt with. For the the year to date we have just short of 50k more deaths than the 5 year average (pre-covid figures 2015-2019) with 1,753 excess deaths for the last week measured (week to 19th Nov). For the last 2 years we have seen 80k excess in 2020 and 50k in 2021 so far, both figures are incomplete as we didn't start to see excess deaths in 2020 until March and we still have a month to go in 2021 but I think it paints a picture of how much we have been hit by this. The 5YA for the full year pre-covid was just short of 540k deaths in England and Wales, 2021 will see that figure increase by 10%.
On a positive note and looking forward, we have put ourselves in a strong position with vaccinations and the measures we have taken. Let's not let it slip now as we go into the worst season for this - get vaccinated, wear a mask and take care.