I'm confused or is Matt Hancock?

If you look below the message box Elderflower you will see all the bits you need.

Oops, how do i get to italicise text please?

Just <i> testing </i>

It would really help if the "scientists" believed in the statistics enough to read them out each day. It seems the government have decided their own ministers obfuscate better than the scientists do.

Not surprised you're less scared, Ug. You're in Spain.

NfkDumpling That site doesn't show the R rate, but the percentage of people reporting symptoms, which is different. Nevertheless, it's really interesting. My area is about the national average, but what worries me is that it's not dropping. That means that the same number of people are symptomatic every day, so as one person recovers (or dies) another one becomes infected. The R rate is, therefore, nudging 1.

Funny that Urm I’m a lot more worried.

I’m a lot less scared nowadays.

I can see that it’s very much a balancing act. Virus versus loss of jobs, etc.

It varies from day to day quite considerably. It’s dropped a lot! It’s the regional figures I find interesting and makes a good case for local lockdowns/restrictions.

NfkD that shows more than 8,000 new cases per day. That must be where the figure came from. Doesn't seem a low figure to me.

covid.joinzoe.com/data#interactive-map. This gives the number of people in each council area taking part in the Zoe survey and the rate of infection. It changes daily. It’s quite worrying that there are still areas where the R rate is more than one.

Should know more now the antibody tests seem to be reliable. Still need to get everyone tested, though.

We will never know the true extent of this, either here or worldwide.
How will we know the true number of cases if some people are symptomless or are hardly ill at all therefore never report to a doctor.

It was reported yesterday that some areas of Russia apparently do not count deaths which they say were caused by pneumonia even if that was caused by COVID19. This could happen in other countries too.

The ONS statistics would be more reliable than any politician.

We're not in safe waters yet imo.

Why should they all have followed the same counting method? They're sovereign countries and always have been. Healthcare and counting deaths have never been EU matters. Whose system should we all have used?

I don't think it matters that much anyway. The one country the UK should be comparing itself with is Germany, which is bigger, but has the same kind of mix of urban and rural areas and population density. It also has a similar mix of ethnic backgrounds and pockets of relative poverty. In comparison, the UK's record is woeful.

You are well not to believe anything Hancock says.

Lies about the testing confirmed.

I’m sure the brexiters do know all that Paddyanne, my point was that this would have been one time when it would have been beneficial for the EU to have followed one format (all inclusive deaths or not) for ease of comparison. It was logistical rather than political.

I agree Doodledog, although I don't actually think there's much of a rationale behind the easing of lockdown anyway, apart from scoring positivity points from those who were fed up with being cooped up. Where I live, in the East of England (but actually London commuter belt territory), the infection rate doesn't seem to have shifted much, which I find concerning. It means that as one person recovers, another one becomes ill, so R=1.

In Germany each small area is being monitored and treated accordingly. Unfortunately, local authorities in the UK have had that capacity stripped out through successive cuts. IMO the attempt to control this from the centre in a top down way is a huge mistake.

I definitely do not trust Matt Hancock
He is shifty
Sorry but he is totally a yes man and often seems out of his depth
You are not wrong OP

Pantglas thats something the Brexiteers should know....The EU is a union of Sovereign nations with the power to make their own decisions...just as the UK was.It was Westminster who din't control the borders,Westminster who in fact was responsible for all teh ills brexiteers lay at the door of the EU

Those who are pleased that the 'numbers are going down' might stop to consider that this is definitely not true in the north of England, where they are rising.

Easing the lockdown because the south of the country is seeing a drop in cases is short-sighted at best. Even if you don't care about people in the north, as long as the virus is uncontrolled there it will recirculate in the south, too.

It’s so difficult deciphering different countries accounting with this virus - I fondly imagined the EU countries would have agreed on one way so that comparisons could be made but seems not.

I’ve been watching daily figures for a few select countries, Spain being one, Japan another, and strict lockdowns don’t appear to have worked across the board no more than the lack thereof. Population densities again not a universal factor.

I’m intrigued by the sheer lack of predictability of it all!

Oh, and the ONS figures for excess deaths in England and Wales, out today, show that the number of excess deaths seems to be dropping.

From 4,385 w/e 15th May to 2,348 w/e 22nd May.

But next week we might see a possible VE day effect..

I thought it was 8,000 new cases a week. The 'per day' has puzzled me, too, though I've seen it mentioned a few times.

"Lies, damned lies and statistics" springs to mind.