All through the pandemic UKSHA has printed over 100 weekly national flu and COVID-19 surveillance reports.
These experiences present an necessary image of the pandemic by detailing numbers of confirmed instances, outbreaks, hospitalisations and deaths – the place doable damaged down by elements together with age, gender, area and setting.
As we study to dwell with COVID-19, and as outlined within the authorities’s Living with COVID-19 plan, the virus might be now managed very similar to different respiratory infections, equivalent to flu. Because of this we are going to take a look at, monitor and report on the virus in a method that’s nearer to what we achieve this for different infectious illnesses.
Changes to how we carry out and support COVID-19 testing imply that ‘Pillar 2’ testing information, which incorporates group LFD and PCR testing of each symptomatic and asymptomatic instances, will not present the identical quantity of knowledge; it’ll due to this fact not be the important thing element of our weekly experiences, which might be dominated by ‘Pillar 1’ take a look at outcomes from the NHS.
In fact, testing stays in place for sure high-risk teams equivalent to sufferers in NHS hospitals, these eligible for COVID-19 antiviral and different therapies and employees working within the NHS and grownup social care.
This information has fashioned the premise of ‘Pillar 1’ testing all through the pandemic. Specializing in these take a look at outcomes will allow us to proceed to watch and shield these most prone to hospitalisation, extreme illness and doubtlessly dying. Pillar 1 information may also proceed to help genomic surveillance which helps monitor the evolution of the virus.
Nevertheless, group testing information will proceed to be printed alongside this key information and can present a helpful wider context as we monitor the general affect of COVID-19.
The RCGP sentinel swabbing scheme will proceed to supply an necessary indicator for COVID-19 instances and positivity in the neighborhood. By sampling over 200 GP practices, the scheme offers a positivity price which displays week by week, by age and by area to see if the proportion of individuals with COVID-19 will increase.
Actual-time syndromic surveillance is used day by day by well being professionals to search for altering traits which point out greater ranges of sickness within the inhabitants. This surveillance methodology collects and analyses anonymised well being information from throughout England – monitoring signs introduced by sufferers reasonably than laboratory checks for specific infections.
All of our surveillance methodologies are chosen in order that information may be measured often and persistently over the long run. No single supply of knowledge tells the entire story of illness exercise, nor can any system present a definitive determine for precisely how many individuals may have a illness equivalent to COVID-19.
However as we study to dwell with COVID-19 our surveillance will proceed to supply a robust understanding of COVID-19 exercise and provides invaluable insights to tell public well being motion and well being companies.
