As if I wasn't unpopular enough today. Here goes anyway...
The 1,984 deaths in the last week is the reported number, not the actual number of people who died in the past week. There appears to have been quite a spike on Wednesday, with 600 reported deaths, which is way above the average. The average number of actual deaths per day is steady at around 250. Perhaps the 600 includes a backlog? I know 250 is a lot of people, and I am not downplaying it, but we have to think of it in context.
Although there is less testing than before the ONS Survey is continuing and that tells us that there are more people than ever before who would test positive. However, that number is falling, according to yesterday’s figures. While there are a large number of cases in the country, obviously it will prove fatal for more people than we would hope but there will also be lots of people who test positive but for whom the COVID is not the actual cause of death. Not a popular view, I grant you, but it’s the truth.
We also have the hospital occupancy rate as measure of the state of the pandemic. Since about the 1st April the number of patients in hospital with COVID has been decreasing.