The transition from pandemic to living with Covid as an endemic disease was always going to be tricky, I think we are in the midst of that process. I think that some things are going to be part of the 'new normal', like wearing masks in certain situations, and getting booster jabs every once in a while, but I think the age of legal restrictions and mandates has to be coming to an end now.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
They send out some number of emails every week, at random, to adults in the UK, asking if they'd be willing to take part in the survey. If they say yes, they are sent a PCR test in the post to do at home and return. There is a survey that goes with it, asking if you have any symptoms. I think they aim for something like 40 or 50,000 tests a week but I may have made that up. They are therefore randomly sampling the population regardless of whether they think they have Covid. Hence the expectation that the results are a more reliable guide to how many people actually have it, even when they don't know it.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Yes that is my understanding of how the survey works. I think at one time they were going to people's doors and taking samples, not sure if they are still doing that now.
Ok - thanks - so it's a modelled figure, rather than a count of 'known' infections. I'm not certain how accurate those figures are then - given that the modelling in predicting infection rates has not been entirely accurate. That leaves the current 'infected' rate figures as an amalgamation of the two - ie the Gov's 'yes, these have been PCR tested and show current covid' and the ONS' 'this is a projected sample of how many people we think may have it'. BUT - in the end it all comes down to how many people the n take up the hospital beds and then go on to die or recover. The daily avg deaths within 28 days figure was 240 @ 11th Jan - and the deaths with Covid on the cert is as yet unknown but was 110 ish on 24th Dec (and I'd be thinking that number would increase til the end of Jan as the effect of Christmas washes through).
We saw a van at the local motorway services, being visited by a stream of cars dropping off packages. Being a nosy sort, I asked the driver what was going on! It turns out he was the collection point for a Covid study, and blood samples, swabs and questionnaires were dropped off from people taking part in the surrounding areas. Looks like it will continue till April?
France has announced the easing of Covid rules but they are not instant. From Feb 2nd, capacity restrictions for sports/cultural/social events will be lifted and eating and drinking at such events will be allowed again but you still need a Vaccine Pass to get in.
The advice to work from home 3 days a week will be lifted and nightclubs can open again from mid Feb. Masks will no longer be required outside and they will consider lifting the need for masks in schools assuming infection and hospitalisation rates have stabilised by the end of the half term hols in Feb.
France is moving towards treating Covid as endemic rather than pandemic and, it seems to me, doing it in a rational fashion that is not driven by the need to kill the lead story about a leader with integrity issues.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Around here we have more and more idiots that are just ignoring the mask rules in shops. I wonder if some of the change is just simply because they know they can only control a certain number of people for a while before such a large proportion just carry on as normal. We saw this in the first lock down and since then. I do agree it seems a more political based timing but it's true restrictions only work for short time. I think sensible people will still continue to take basic precautions to protect themselves and others but we do have to live with it and the numbers can be very misleading (I saw the hospital statistic as well and even the bbc reports on its website that deaths within 28 days of a covid positive, includes a large number for which it wasn't a cause of death).
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I think you are right @Loxley.
They are therefore randomly sampling the population regardless of whether they think they have Covid. Hence the expectation that the results are a more reliable guide to how many people actually have it, even when they don't know it.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/covid19infectionsurveycis
The advice to work from home 3 days a week will be lifted and nightclubs can open again from mid Feb. Masks will no longer be required outside and they will consider lifting the need for masks in schools assuming infection and hospitalisation rates have stabilised by the end of the half term hols in Feb.
France is moving towards treating Covid as endemic rather than pandemic and, it seems to me, doing it in a rational fashion that is not driven by the need to kill the lead story about a leader with integrity issues.
I think sensible people will still continue to take basic precautions to protect themselves and others but we do have to live with it and the numbers can be very misleading (I saw the hospital statistic as well and even the bbc reports on its website that deaths within 28 days of a covid positive, includes a large number for which it wasn't a cause of death).