Originally Posted by
Walnut
Thanks for that explanation On Today Grant Shapps said France was 20.5
Boris is always stating the infection rate in the U.K. is 1900 using the ONS figures down from 4000 I believe are his words So using that calculation that means the U.K. is circa 30, about 50% more than France
So who is right? or are we being given yet more dodgy numbers
Firstly the ONS figures normally cover England only, although they included Wales for the first time in their latest survey. This estimated the number of people in England who had COVID-19 during the week 3 to 8 August at 28,300 people, that is 1
in 1,900 people (not that only 1,900 people had it as your post seems to say) so presumably Boris said "1 in 1,900" as well. I would trust the ECDPC numbers rather than what any politician says as far as infection rate per 100,000 of population is concerned. All the daily numbers for infections are a function of the number of people being tested - test more people and you will pick up more infections, especially if the testing is focused on outbreak 'hotspots', that is obvious. As the UK has to date carried out 12 million tests compared to France's 6 million the raw number of daily infections for the UK is likely to be higher is it not? This week's 'More or Less' on Radio 4 is worth a listen as it discusses testing at some length.