We welcome the work of analysts across a range of organisations in providing the public with information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pace at which these organisations have set up new data collection and dissemination processes has been unprecedented and enabled timely updates on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. We warmly congratulate all those who are contributing to this effort.
Estimates for the number of cases and deaths for the whole UK are being published and each of the four nations within the UK should continue to collaborate to enable UK reporting as statistics are developed further.
In our discussions with producers of statistics, we have seen a commitment to continuously improve the information provided to the public. Following these discussions, there have been improvements to provide greater clarity, including:
- clarification of what the daily figures published by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) do and do not include (those who have died in hospitals and who have tested positive for COVID-19);
- improvements to the supporting information on the Public Health England (PHE) dashboard, including clearer explanation of the sources and coverage of these figures;
- explanation in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly deaths statistics of how COVID-19 related deaths impact on the figures;
- clarification of how ONS and DHSC figures relate to each other through the joint statement published by DHSC and ONS;
- cessation of publication of a “patients recovered” figure by Public Health England because of data quality limitations.
Clear explanations of what the data mean for Northern Ireland and the commitment to regular publication times in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also support user confidence.
It is important that statistics producers continue to enhance the information available to the public. We have been assured that statistics producers are working to make developments, including:
- further breakdowns of the data and more information about hospital admissions;
- more information on the capacity of and demands on the health system, building on the analysis of NHS 111 calls published by NHS Digital;
- further explanation of how the figures from the UK’s four nations compare to one another;
- and, in the medium term, greater information about the demographic characteristics of people who are confirmed as having or having had COVID-19.