School pupils have had a tough year. For those with examinations, such as A-levels, it has been even tougher. The Department for Education decreed that A-levels and GCSEs should not take place due to the COVID crisis. This meant that an alternative way of allocating grades to students needed to be found. To set the …
Author archives: Dr Duncan Robertson
Data Sources for COVID-19 in England – Letter from PHE to Local Authorities
I have received a copy of the following letter from Public Health England to Local Authorities setting out the data sources available to local authories and the public. The letter is dated 9 July 2020 and I have redacted certain information. This should be useful for people wishing to understand what data is (and was) …
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Data Sources for COVID-19 Analysis in England
Since the early Number 10 Downing Street press conferences, the data available to analyze the progression of the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK has become somewhat fragmented. This is an overview of the major sources of data. coronavirus.data.gov.uk This shows data for testing, cases, healthcare, and deaths, updated daily. More detail is shown on each …
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Total (Cumulative) Deaths from COVID-19 to 7 July 2020
I have analyzed the death data from coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk and produced the maps below. These are for total deaths since the beginning of the epidemic (not total cases and not current deaths). Leicester (currently locked down with a large number of cases) does not have a relatively high number of deaths. Areas that are dark green …
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Searchable SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) Minutes on COVID-19
The early minutes of SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) were searchable: However, later minutes are not. So, if you are searching for, say “asymptomatic transmission”, you won’t find anything. Which is odd, beacuase the SAGE meeting where this was first mooted, on 28 January, is searchable (the documents listed do not link to …
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COVID-19 Deaths by Population at 6 July 2020
Cumulative COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 population as at 6 July 2020 Zoomed in to London coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk has just released death totals per local authority. We can divide these by the population to get deaths per 100,000 population up to 5 July 2020. These data and the analysis is provisional and may be updated. Group 1: …
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Commentary on COVID-19 cases in Leicester
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5MLUw1CMsw Leicester went into lockdown in early July, with the Statutory Instrument setting out these restrictions published on 3 July (The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020) just before the loosening of restrictions elsewhere in the country. Public Health England has published an analysis of what is known about the Leiecester outbreak. Diagrams are …
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Thinking of Drinking?
The pubs open on Saturday in England, allowing people to mix in confined spaces and potentially transmit COVID-19. In Friday’s Number 10 briefing, the Chief Medical Officer said”The biggest risks are when lots of people from completely different households are brought together in close proximity indoors. And whether that’s in a pub or a cricket …
Top Local Authorities for COVID-19 Positive Tests
Public Health England have tonight (2 July 2020) released data for the total number of people who have positive COVID-19 results at a local authority level. The data is at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/#category=utlas&map=rate. Critically, these include both Pillar 1 (NHS and PHE labs) and Pillar 2 (NHS Test & Trace commercial labs) data. Here are the cumulative …
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Which English city could be next for a Leicester-like lockdown? 2 July New Analysis
Public Health England has today released the second tranche of data for COVID tests. This is the most comprehensive data we have for tests as it includes Pillar 1 tests (those conducted by PHE and NHS hospitals) and Pillar 2 tests (those conducted by private companies under NHS Test and Trace). Some journalists had been …