UK Covid data

[Kitty]

I mean, when I caught Covid (finally) the other week, I couldn't find any way of formally registering that I had it.

If you got your result via an NHS LFT, you can still register it (I reported both my recent infections). They don't accept results from privately bought tests, though, it's only the ones issued by the central service.

https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result

 

[JemPD]

Yes, they are. I've been on it since April 2020 and am still submitting test results every month.

Kitty do you know if/where the public can access the resulkts?
I used to follow the ONS page but its stopped providing updates in march 23

 

[Tao Fogger]

It's run by the UKHSA now, here https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

 

[JemPD]

thanks @Tao Fogger but that seems to only tell me the total number of cases?... which doesnt really mean anything to me because surely thats just the total number of cases reported? - which will be a great many less cases than there actually are out there...
ONS survey used to survey/test the same number of people every wk across all demographics & extrapolate a national average from that 800 per 100,000 people, or '1 in 40' people for example, which gave me a much better idea of how likely i was to come across someone with covid in a shop for example.

But the total number of cases reported is limited severely by the number of tests done - which is hardly any in comparison with 3yrs ago - giving a vastly reduced estimate of numbers of actual cases. The only thing you can get an impression of is whether numbers are moving up or down in comparison to last wk/month/yr, which i not that bothered about.

Edit: am i being dense & just cant see the info?

Edit: sorry i should have looked at your original link Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study: estimates of epidemiological characteristics, 1 February 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) - which had the info i was after,

 

[Wits_End]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-and-ons-release-latest-winter-covid-19-infection-study-data



So it seems they are still doing the random testing of those 26,000 and basing their figures on those results

But these people are taking tests every month despite - in many cases - not even remotely thinking they might have Covid. How does that affect the "in real life" situation?

 

[Tao Fogger]

My understanding is it's a representative sample of the population who are being tested. If 1% test positive, that can be extrapolated to 1% of the population likely to test positive. Although, in actual fact, there's some adjustment of the figures to accurately determine the rate across the country. I'm not sure how that adjustment is made, but it's made the same way each time, so the results are comparable.