NHS England has reported  331 new hospital deaths

Wales has reported 95 new cases and 21 new deaths

Scotland has reported 272 new cases and 83 new deaths

Northern Ireland has reported 53 new cases and 14 new deaths

435 hospital deaths provisionally in the UK 

Previous Wednesdays

• 610 on April 29th


• 791 on April 22nd


• 801 on April 15th


• 936 on April 8th

Breakdown of the 331 new hospital deaths in England by date

• 54 on May 5th


• 121 on May 4th


• 28 on May 3rd


• 28 on May 1st & 2nd


• 84 in April


• 16 in March with one on March 13th

From The Times:

"...

Yesterday Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, admitted that free travel into the UK before the lockdown in late March probably contributed to the outbreak, saying that genetic studies showed “we got imports from all over the place”.

..."

No sh1t Sherlock! Only three months late! Remember that I wrote to my MP on 7th February expressing concern about lack of port screening and free travel from infected areas, to which I received a shockingly complacent response from a Home Office Official: "At present, we do not intend to introduce port screening measures such as temperature checks, as the scientific advice suggests that they simply do not work."

Hi Gavin, or anyone. Do you know where I can get a low level breakdown of daily new cases in England, maybe down to town level. I was going to try and see if there was some sort of pattern, anything which might suggest why we are still running c4k new cases each day. To me with such high infection rates still, any relaxing maybe quickly halted owing to this high base figure. We must get on top of this figure, or at least try to have an understanding what's driving it. It is still too high!

You can get Upper Tier Local Authorities data on the Gov website. It usually updates late afternoon or early evening.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

This could be just my ignorant take on it, but I think the rather stable total number of new infections consists of 2 different sources: a gradually decreasing Pillar 1 infections (which IMO is more important and encouraging) and an increasing number of Pillar 2 infections, which reflects more the increasing number of tests. I agree however that there should be more clarity and focus on this.

Believe it or not, Yvette Cooper is your woman! She is trying to find out what the evidence was and why the decisions were taken. No evidence has yet been provided despite Hancock saying two weeks ago that he would provide it. I guess he and the rest of the government are busy at the moment but hopefully they will be able release this evidence soon. (the tweet below starts off a short thread including Vallance's contribution yesterday)

Unlike Germany, Italy, South Korea, Australia, Canada & many other countries, UK doesn’t ask people to self isolate/ quarantine when they arrive at ports & airports. I have been trying to find out why not for some time. I got no answer again today. pic.twitter.com/H5KXslRnaf

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) May 5, 2020

We were also told at the time (mid-March)  that there is no scientific evidence that banning mass events makes a difference. They never provided any evidence or source for this and almost everything suggests that mass events accelerate epidemics.

Great, thanks. Does it provide historical data on these as well, or just the latest. Thanks

Hi Caz - yes, it was partly your experience which prompted me to write to my MP about the lack of UK port screening - "no point" was the eventual response to that, yet now they are suddenly in favour of the idea - the full article in The Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-heathrow-airport-to-introduce-temperature-scanners-kr2hbf58t

"Heathrow will introduce temperature scanners in terminals within two weeks as part of its lockdown exit plan, it was announced today.

..."

This in my mind is the real scandal, rather than all the froth about PPE and ICU beds - if (as an island nation) we had taken early and prompt measures of border control, we may have been able to control the spread of the virus via the existing testing, track and trace operations which were in place until it got out of control.

This provides historical data per local authority area (scroll all the way down)
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-tracker-how-many-cases-are-in-your-area-updated-daily-11956258

This does so in a more graphical way, but unfortunately they seem to have recently broken the ability to see the numbers change in each area other than with a colour on the map.
https://www.covidlive.co.uk/

As I've been saying for some time, about a month ago London boroughs filled all Top 15 spaces and 27 out of the top 29 (by cases per head of population). Now areas in the North East make up 4 of the Top 5, and northern locations 7 of the top 10. In short the NW and NE is now where the outbreak is gathering pace.

I'd say 'probably', instead of 'may', there are many countries which have done exactly this. The only caveat is that we are a transport hub with a highly mobile population, but still it was probably a mistake.

What I find strange is that all through this horrific journey we’ve been constantly told we were following the science.

We didn’t ban mass events because the science said you didn’t need to.

We didn’t screen passengers because the science said we didn’t need to.

Yet other countries did. Our scientists are now coming out of the woodwork and saying this and that they should have been. 

Why did our science determine these events should or actions continue while other countries determined otherwise. It really does beg the question whether the politicians were ignoring the advise or the scientists we have just aren’t up to the job. It’s seemed very obvious to most on here at the time that screening and a ban on mass gatherings were obvious.

Are you blonde with big tits?

Only way you would be allowed near him

Thanks Darren

Incredible

Just imagine if a Labour govt had done this, the howls of outrage in the press would be deafening, yet we have open borders to the virus, not just back in Feb, BUT NOW! 

Instead you have Farage worried about a few starving Syrian war refugees trying to come over on rubber dingies

On the topic of actual deaths, rather than official figures, there is some insight coming out of Italy now as per the below from The Times:

"...

A study has shown that the country’s real Covid-19 death rate could be nearly twice the official tally. Italy’s national health institute said that the country’s total death toll between February 20 — the date of Italy’s first case — and March 31 was 25,000 higher than the average for that time of the year. During that period Italy had 13,700 official virus deaths, suggesting that more than 11,000 may have gone uncounted.

..."

Here:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/italian-workers-swap-coronavirus-lockdown-for-lockout-9sz2snhg5

They are not "Syrian war refugees", they are illegal migrants trying to invade from Calais. Of those who make it, hardly any are actually from a war zone and pretty well none are from Syria.

But on the wider topic - I have averred from the outset that we should have had border controls to counter COVID-19.

P.S. If they are starving, that is their own bloody fault - if they were prepared to register in France, Belgium, Holland or Germany, they would be looked after!!!!!!

It was I understand originally penned in for 08 May 2020. There is clearly some caution and nervousness there and understandably so.

ah...good to see, Maunder that your compassionate side is coming  to the fore!!  I just wish I could teleport you into one of those camps in northern  France or in Lesbos just for a few days so you could hear some of the stories, the human tide of misery and desperation of folk who have lost EVERTYTHING to escape a war zone or to try to start a new life somewhere else that offers just the possibility of some hope....