9,408 in hospital is today's figure in Great Britain. Figure for Great Britain yesterday was 9,406. They are including N Ireland in the yesterday figures (to get the 10,035) but not the today figures again. There is a general downwards trend regardless but they shouldn't compare like this.

As long as the same data source is used every time I wouldn't have thought that would have mattered.

Regional data for new cases today in England

The 7 English regions 

• London +47 (0.2%) 26,487


• Midlands +234 (1.0%) 24,250


• North West +176 (0.7%) 23,786


• North East and Yorkshire +127 (0.6%) 22,826


• South East +103 (0.5%) 20,328


• East of England +97 (0.7%) 13,129


• South West +21 (0.3%) 7,315

The 10 local areas with the highest cases

1. Kent +34 (0.8%) 4,475


2. Lancashire +11 (0.3%) 3,351


3. Birmingham +28 (0.8%) 3,303


4. Hampshire +11 (0.3%) 3,168


5. Essex +20 (0.6%) 3,084


6. Surrey +8 (0.3%) 2,819


7. Hertfordshire +33 (1.2%) 2,761


8. Sheffield +5 (0.2%) 2,477


9. Cumbria +3 (0.1%) 2,145


10. Staffordshire +19 (0.9%) 2,090

The 10 local areas with the lowest cases

1. Rutland 32 - No change


2. North East Lincolnshire +2 (1.4%) 148


3. Isle of Wight +1 (0.6%) 178


4. Torbay 221 - No change


5. Bath and North East Somerset +1 (0.4%) 228


6. Bracknell Forest +1 (0.4%) 236


7. Windsor and Maidenhead +2 (0.7%) 280


8. Calderdale 283 - No change


9. Hartlepool 295 - No change


10. Portsmouth 312 - No change

Absolutely, Caz.

It is OK for politicians, journalists and we in the general public to speculate all we like. The best thing we can and should all do is to let the scientists get on with what they are doing. If we leave then along to continue with their efforts to find a safe and effective vaccine, then IMO the chances of one coming along one day will be improved considerably.

Yes, of course you are right - at least for the up down trend that is all that matters.

Better news from the US. Trump's vaccine looks more promising than Oxford's. In fact I reckon Trump's vaccine will be the greatest vaccine ever. 

Coronavirus vaccine in first human trial shows signs of creating immunity

Potential vaccine appears safe and created 'neutralising antibodies'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/18/coronavirus-vaccine-first-human-trial-shows-signs-creating-immunity/

Question about the NHS app-ocalyspe met with a straight bat by Raab. Has anyone heard what the current status actually is with the app? There were rumours a second one using the Google API was being developed. No idea if that is the case.  

Gary Gibbon, from Channel 4, suggests the timetable for the tracing app has "slipped somewhat" and the length of time it is taking to return test results is also holding the UK back.

Mr Raab says it is a perfectly reasonable question and the UK will be "learning lessons" as the tracing process unfolds.

Edit: Just seen this on the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52709568

If they can't even spin it past "tech guru" Kettle-Jones one can only assume it is pants at the moment.

The reporting here of this vaccine is way off. The results in primates were very promising. It was a single dose that was given against a high viral load, including nasal infection (unlike other vaccine tests). The impact a single dose had (when the vaccine is not envisaged as single dose) was significant and promising.

Might I suggest this is one of those moments when Twitter IS useful rather than simply latching onto an article that has now been passed around different media outlets. On Twitter a whole series of epidemiologists have stepped in to critique this negative take.

Positive (new) cases first time below 3k since 30 March.

It's still not as good as the Chinese vaccine though, which successfully stopped a reinfection entirely. They gave them two doses - would the Oxford vaccine have fared better with two doses, perhaps?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/covid-19-vaccine-protects-monkeys-new-coronavirus-chinese-biotech-reports

Researchers from Sinovac Biotech, a privately held Beijing-based company, gave two different doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to a total of eight rhesus macaques. Three weeks later, the group introduced SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, into the monkeys’ lungs through tubes down their tracheas, and none developed a full-blown infection.

and as Forbes reports:

All of the vaccinated monkeys treated with the Oxford vaccine became infected when challenged, as judged by recovery of virus genomic RNA from nasal secretions. There was no difference in the amount of viral RNA detected from this site in the vaccinated monkeys as compared to the unvaccinated animals. Which is to say, all vaccinated animals were infected. This observation is in marked contrast to the results reported from Sinovac trial. At the highest dose studied, no virus was recovered from vaccinated monkeys from the throat, lung, or rectum of the vaccinated animals. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/05/16/did-the-oxford-covid-vaccine-work-in-monkeys-not-really/#3dd0c8663c71

Thanks Nick.

Definitely a time to be wary of media articles. I think it says a lot that at least two mainstream news outlets have interpreted this vaccine progress completely differently. 

As usual, the details reveal it is not so clear-cut.

Sinovac gave 3 doses, I think; Oxford 1.

Oxford vaccine was challenged with a dose of the virus that was 2.6 times higher than the Sinovac trial.

Sinovac trials did not challenge the animals via the nose, only via tubes.

Sinovac did not test for nasal shedding at all, unlike Oxford.

Not saying this means the Oxford vaccine is NOT below the Chinese one in how promising it is, just that that Forbes report - on which the articles are based - does NOT tell the whole story, and has been seriously caveated by epidemiologists.

Meanwhile in human trials of an American vaccine...

The first coronavirus vaccine tested on humans appears safe and generated antibodies which stopped the virus replicating, according to early trial results shared on Monday. 

Eight healthy volunteers saw few adverse effects after taking two doses of the potential vaccine, according to Moderna, its manufacturer based in Massachusetts. 

It appeared to trigger an immune response - the critical requirement of a working vaccine - producing "neutralising antibodies" in all eight of the patients. 

The levels of those antibodies were similar to that found in people who caught Covid-19 and then recovered. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/18/coronavirus-vaccine-first-human-trial-shows-signs-creating-immunity/

Gavin does the test percentages but they’re wrong because he calculates yesterday’s returned results against yesterday’s tests conducted.  It’s misleading, but he does a great job posting the up to date stats!  

Hospital admissions are down though, which suggests a high proportion of those testing positive, are milder cases. 

All in all, it’s currently looking better.  Let’s hope we can keep it that way!  

Indeed, it would be good to get some consistency in testing methods - it makes it very hard to compare results!

(Incidentally, something which would normally be greeted with howls of outrage - testing on monkeys - is now seen in a good light. It's funny the way things change over time!)

So not a "sustained fall" as Van Dam claims. Shame when scientists are roped into doing Govt PR

Yes, I suppose its a bit like when you are starving, even a vegan would eat meat if it was all that was available

I would like to know what happens to the monkeys afterwards. I hope the Chinese don't turn them into soup

Yes, I think if we take a step back and look at where we are now compared to a month ago we are in a better place, irrespective of the reasons how we got here or who has been right or wrong! 

I think over a longer period these trends are down but they shouldn't keep ignoring the blips to spin the preferred outcome. That's how you end up with the next excuse which is "it's easy with hindsight".

Yes, the lockdown was working, just a shame Boris ended it last Sunday. We wont know what the consequences of that will be for another few weeks

Where is Boris? Gone on another holiday?

I was thinking that. Hardly ever in view these days. He is either still not that well, which is quite possible, or is realising this job isn't quite the cakewalk he was expecting and wants out!

Another one bites the dust

A 49-year-old man has fallen out of a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital for coronavirus patients and died, Russian media reports. https://t.co/i8TvxFfKRb

Three Russian doctors treating coronavirus patients also fell out of windows in recent weeks. https://t.co/qvaQOevRDq

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 18, 2020

He should be out there rubbing noses with his enthusiastic supporters like Bolsonaro.

Although even Bolsonaro is wearing a face mask now

Bolsonaro snubs health advice, snaps photos with children

Bolsonaro's latest flouting of social-distancing guidelines comes after he lost two health ministers in a month.

Wearing a face mask, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro posed for photographs with children plucked out of a crowd of supporters on Sunday, disregarding public health advice aimed at containing one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/brazil-bolsonaro-snubs-health-advice-snaps-photos-children-200518150403905.html