The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced it will scrap its weekend coronavirus updates, in what appears to be another part of the government’s push for England to begin “living with Covid”.
Starting this week, Covid case and death figures will only be published on weekdays, with Saturday and Sunday’s data being fed into Monday’s update from now on.
Previously, the UKHSA gave these updates seven days a week – they include case, death and vaccine figures from the last 24-hour period.
In a statement, published on the gov.uk website, it was announced: “The dashboard will be updated as usual from Monday to Friday.
“Daily cases and deaths by report date published on Mondays will include figures from the weekend. These will not be separated out to show daily figures for Saturday and Sunday.”
The five-day reporting model is one other countries, such as Scotland, have used throughout the pandemic.
The change came as it was announced that the number of deaths involving coronavirus in England and Wales fell for the third week in a row.
A total of 1,066 deaths registered in the week ending 11 February mentioned Covid on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – down 14 per cent on the previous seven days. It is also the lowest number since 922 deaths were registered in the week to 7 January.
The figures suggest Covid deaths are now on a downwards trend, following a rise in December and early January driven by the Omicron variant. This is likely due to the success of the vaccination rollout across the UK, in particular the rollout of booster jabs.
On Monday, Boris Johnson announced an end to almost all Covid restrictions by the end of the month, saying this was only possible due to the high levels of immunity and low deaths currently being seen.
As part of his “living with Covid” plan, the prime minister said the legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid and £500 quarantine support payments would end in England on Thursday. He also confirmed that free Covid testing for the public will be scrapped in England from 1 April, in a move that has angered health officials.
It “fails to protect those at highest risk of harm from Covid-19, and neglects some of the most vulnerable people in society,” Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the British Medical Association’s council chair, said yesterday.
“Living with Covid-19 must not mean ignoring the virus all together – which in many respects the government’s plan in England seems to do.”
Mr Johnson, on the other hand, stayed positive. “It’s time we got our confidence back … let us learn to live with this virus, and continue protecting ourselves and others, without restricting freedoms,” he said, before admitting England could not yet “claim victory over Covid”.
