Yes, London has 2,033 in hospital now apparently compared to 4,819 at the peak, almost a 60% drop. My area saw a 75% drop in the number of cases in the space of a few weeks although they are still occurring so it has not disappeared from here (7 reported today).

Big rise in number of cases in NW today as well which is concerning although we all know that one day's figures can be unrepresentative. Might be a bit of a reporting issue as, for instance, Oldham had 100 cases reported today compared to a previous daily high of 42. A few others i looked at were similar.

UK data

• Tests - 76,496


• People tested - 56,397


• Positive tests - 4,339

Confirmed rate is 7.69%

I'd say cause for concern if i'm honest - how can you get the count that wrong 

I realise that they and other Countries didn't have hindsight so what would have made a difference then? 

The first mistake was that China has practices (and possibly some other Countries  which allow including high intensity pig and poultry farming) which are likely to induce a pandemic. This is a known and nothing has been done. It started there so I do attribute blame and responsibility for that on China.

But ask yourself this. Let's assume China followed what you think should have happened.

They became concerned that something odd was occurring in Wuhan in late December , early January. It appears that the local Government tried to suppress this and caused a two week shutdown delay in Wuhan. SO let us say they knew exactly what it was in late December and shut all borders and told the World they had isolated a virus in the state of Wuhan. The rest of the World would now be in exactly  the same position as they had been with Sars and previous similar viruses. They didn't do anything then either. They then quite quickly told the rest of the World what the genome of this virus was. Doubt that could have been done much faster. So then there would have been a fewer number of people visiting Europe or being able to return from China. But there are some.

Are you honestly and seriously saying that all of the rest of the World would then have shut all their international borders then? That would have been the only way to control it better. The reality was that China shut its border in late January and most of the World decided to wait and watch and see what happened, generally playing it down until March!

China closing its borders sooner would only have helped if the International community followed suit immediately and we all know they wouldn't have. That's not the area the future investigations should focus on with China. 

Well quite on the last bit about stopping practices, but I am not sure given how embedded these practices are in their culture how easy they will be found to stop altogether.

 Yep, same as what I've just said. I wouldn't use the word "sympathy" for them any more than I would for other Countries shortcomings. There has been, let's say, an International lack of preparedness.

Are they fiddling the numbers to paint a rosier picture in time for Bozo to make his big announcement on Thursday?

If we need a world control try Belarus! Just watched about them on the ITN news. Leader says get on with it and drink more Vodka. Zero restrictions other that what an individual might take. Full football programme, bars open, gatherings. Big state military tattoo next week with mass gatherings of thousand attending.

The shame of it is, apart from what might happen to the people, is that the true statistics from there might never be available.

Silly if they are 

I think this Government has done a good job (shock, horror!) on not taking actions along political ideology lines. I don't think a different Government would have done much better. Some things maybe different, some better, maybe some worse. It doesn't mean I think they've done a great job but many of the obstacles would have been the same and inbuilt in the current system whoever was in power. 

My kind of country

What are peoples thoughts on the schools - I have read years 10 and 12 returning , no mention of primary schools having a phased so does that mean a full on return for those , if the case then social distancing is gone 

Retron ? sure you'd have an opinion?

I thought the Telegraph correspondent who asked if building the Nightingales was a waste of time was an idiot.

It made me wonder though how long they will stay for, having basically been seconded. Maybe till after the winter, depending on how things pan out? As a relatively isolated Country in years to come, if we want to be seen as a world leader, I would like to see a small number of specialist regional Pandemic Hospitals built a bit like the Nightingales. Well equipped and mothballed but on permanent stand-by including emergency staffing. If we can had a Territorial Army (has that gone now?) then maybe a Medical Task Force. Would cost money but as we have found out -  pandemics do.

Where have I tried to argue that the rest of the world should have shut its borders three or four months ago? I have never said that and I don't believe anyone else here has said that either. How was the rest of the world supposed to know how serious the situation with the virus was in Wuhan and then the rest of China without the authorities being honest about just how bad the situation there was in December/January. The virus started there, and therefore it was their responsibility to deal with it properly at the beginning.

I'm afraid I simply don't accept that China closing its international borders without the rest of the world doing the same early on would have made no difference in terms of mitigating the effect of the virus on other countries. If the Chinese has closed their external borders sooner, then fewer people would have been able to leave the country and thus spread the virus elsewhere. Any British people in China at the times and those that were there from other countries could have been brought back to their own countries by way of specially chartered flights and tested for the virus upon arrival in their own country. Anyone who tested positive for the virus could have then gone into quarantine for the necessary period of time.

For me it's common sense; the more people there are travelling around spreading the virus, the worse the problem becomes. Isn't that exactly why we in the UK, plus people in so many other countries, have been living our daily lives under a lockdown for many weeks now with many restrictions on what travelling we can and can't do?

You mention SARS and outbreaks of other viruses above. I don't recall national lockdowns, social distancing or limitations on internal or overseas travel being imposed either in this country or in any other country in this part of the world when we had SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu and Ebola.

If any or all of those diseases had been recongised as being as contageous and as dangerous to human life as Covid-19, I am pretty sure in my own mind that the restrictions that have been imposed on daily life in this country and many others in the past couple of months would have also been imposed when those other viruses were circulating.

Agree there's a big cover up here, and in plenty of other countries as well. While there's a bit a squabbling on here regarding numbers, I would not take any of them as gospel. Some look ludicrous compared to similar countries to them, totally out of sync. Like the disease we will get to know more about it as we move on, the same will be for certain countries where for whatever reason now they haven't been completly honest with their stats.

Pi ers Morgan will not be on GMB tomorrow after having a test for Covid-19


"On medical advice, and out of an abundance of caution for a mild symptom that arose in past 48hrs, I’ve had a test for COVID-19 and so won’t be working on @GMB until I get the result back, which should be tomorrow."

This thread is getting shorter and shorter by the day. A reflection of Corona fatigue and the virus petering out. It seems to be in retreat in every country, even the ones that didn't lock down. 

Perhaps it will disappear as quickly as it arrived and we can get back to normal life much sooner than expected!

This is a very silly post but I do agree we are about to move into the next phase of this crisis. I predict a bit of a sh*tstorm in trying to ease the lockdown. The logistics are going to be a nightmare. 

I would’ve defended them if they’d missed the 100,000-a-day target by a bit & owned it. But it’s now the third day of May & they are categorically not doing 100,000 tests a day. They fiddled the figures to secure a single day of positive coverage & our supine newspapers let them.

— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) May 3, 2020

Disappear ……...do you think ?

Quickly ........we had a few  months notice , bit like your enemy attacking you with a ghetto blaster playing at full volume .

A lot of people don't have a smartphone, especially older and poorer people, so Im not sure how this App is going to work. I suspect it wont even be used in a meaningful way

My big concern is only 7 or so days ago Boris is saying we stay as we are and now there are rumours ( and they are only that ) that schools will be back by June 1st , we could be in a big danger , similar to children in a sweet shop here , god forbid if a second wave hits us in the Summer and a third in the Winter 

Bye Bye UK if that's the case 

Agreed , if that's all we have in our Arsenal its going to be tough 

I don't think there has been a single recorded example of transmission from a child (U10) to an adult. So if the plan is to open primary schools only it might actually be a good idea.

We need to make sure the evidence is robust first ofc.