Yes…well, there is always the chance he could say something significant 
1 Like
Well, he’ll be saying something about the NHS in the near future - new UK hospitalisations are now running at 2,000 a day … 
Healthcare
Patients admitted
Latest data provided on 27 December 2021
Daily
1,924
Last 7 days
9,958
THERE HAS BEEN AN INCREASE OF 3,325 (50.1%)
1 Like
Yes he said the NHS was on a war footing… 
Quite how that helps matters, I really don’t know. It will make people avoid going to hospital, I think.
1 Like
Hmm don’t like the way the graph is jumping up there at the end 
1 Like
He has definitely done something creative with the hair gel tonight
1 Like
the people in hospital are in for shorter periods and not requiring the sort of treatment Delta and others required. No way you can see the comparison on the graphs but it was explained at the briefing.
I thought it looked darker and less flyaway …or he’s borrowed one of Trump’s wigs.
2 Likes
More patients but a finite number of beds and fewer staff … not good … 
Reporting is lagging right now due to the holidays.
From the NHS site
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/
No, I didn’t … 
I never include deaths or hospitalisations in the daily figures but comment on them if it’s applicable.
The UK COVID death rate has remained at, more or less, the same level throughout December:
Hospitalisations have doubled over the same period:
As we all know, cases have quadrupled:
Full monthly figures have, as yet, not been collated, either by HMG or ONS.
I will definitely be posting a monthly, and yearly, summary … 
The only reason hospitals are under so much pressure is because staff have to isolate after testing positive. Even if they have mild or no symptoms.
1 Like
@ Omah, What didn’t you do Omah ??
You didn’t forget them ?
Or, you didn’t do it on purpose ?
Personally l am totally fed up with all this excessb
data we are being bombarded with now from all directions !!
Donkeyman! 
On this forum you have the options to mute specific FMs, threads and categories - once muted, they will not be visible.
Cases
People tested positive
Latest data provided on 5 January 2022
194,747
Last 7 days
1,281,588
Out of Control … 
Tests must reach those who need them most - PM
The prime minister says the UK has the biggest testing programme in Europe - registering twice as many tests as France, and four times as many as Germany.
Last month, 300m lateral flow tests were handed out, he says, which enabled people to spend Christmas with loved ones safely.
But due to the “sheer size” of the Omicron wave, the government must take steps to ensure testing capacity “reaches those who need it most”.
He reiterates the announcement earlier that people in England will no longer have to confirm the result of a positive lateral flow test with a PCR test if they don’t have symptoms.
He says from Tuesday, people should just record the result of the lateral flow test on the government website and begin isolating.
What will this change of policy mean to recorded case statistics … 
Surely, if it appears to the public that the government is not ‘bothered’ about asymptomatic “positives” then certain members of the public won’t ‘bother’ recording their “positive” results … 
Perhaps they intend to stop dishing up daily stats?
They’re going to sooner or later.
Not sooner AFAIK.
But BJ would, obviously, like to lower the currently reported appalling rate of infection and may, as happened before, “manipulate” reported rates. If he does then the ONS statistics will, hopefully reveal a discrepancy.
They haven’t made any mention of it so far but I can see it coming within the next month or so … if they categorically believe that Omicron is much milder, and they can sort out the supply of LFT kits I reckon they’ll push to get the country as far back to normal life as they can … which might mean a weekly update rather than highlighting the pandemic everyday.
I suspect that’s also why we’re seeing reports that a fourth booster is not the way to go.
1 Like