Not for the first time, people could be excused for feeling a bit confused by conflicting data on Covid-19. This morning, many news outlets reported claims from the latest React study that levels of Covid-19 infections are no longer falling and may, in fact, be rising. This is somewhat at odds with government data that shows cases have peaked since the beginning of the third English lockdown. For days, the figure for new infections, as detected by NHS Test and Trace, and published on the government’s Covid-19 dashboard, have been falling.
In the past seven days, the number of new infections recorded across the UK was 294,172 — 21.5 per cent down on the previous seven day period.
What’s going on? The Covid-19 dashboard figures are cases of infection picked up through the test and trace system — they are a count of people who have developed symptoms, been tested and returned a positive result.
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