Working out the prevalence of Covid-19 in the population is one of the crucial components of understanding the pandemic and the timing of relaxation of lockdown measures.
We’ve been looking at the way that targets for Covid-19 have been defined and measured. And we received a number of emails and comments from members of the public about this.
After reviewing the data and data definitions, and talking to the Department of Health and Social Care, we concluded that there is scope for improvement in how the targets are described and measured. This led to a letter, published today, from the Chair of the Authority, to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Sir David’s letter urged the Government to update the COVID-19 national testing strategy to show more clearly how targets are being defined, measured and reported.
See the full letter from Sir David Norgrove to Matt Hancock here