Case rates & positivity continue to fall across the age groups with no clear sign of pre-Easter rise in school-age cases leading to more infection in older ages.
Highest in 10-19y/o (42 per 100,000) and lowest among 70-79y/o at just 7.2/100,000.
A pattern matched by ONS survey
Case rates also falling across all the regions, with slightly higher rates in Yorkshire and Humber (45 cases per 100,000 compared with just 14/100,000 in the SW).
Again not dissimilar to ONS and good to see case rates come down (next ONS update due tomorrow)
This does mask some differences by age - particularly look at Y&H, as well as 10-19y/o in EofE, London, and SE.
The upper tier local authority data show this even more starkly.
Whilst case rates are generally falling everywhere, the same places still have the highest rates.
They range from 74 cases per 100,000 in Doncaster to just 7/100,000 in Torbay.
A factor of 10.
And just to emphasise this point, the places with high case rates in the most recent week generally overlap with the cumulative highest case rates, and highest death rates.
As have said multiple times, this is largely driven by structural inequalities - job security, housing - @louisemarsha11 and I wrote about this again just this week.
Percentage of tests that are positive for PCR now just 0.89% (PCR uptake relatively static)
and for LFDs it's 0.15%, falling as LFD use increases (LFDs were available to everyone from 9th April).
Differences by ethnicity may not be particularly obvious overall, but they are still apparent when looking at the regional data.
And for deprivation it's easier to see.
Both the inequalities in case rates by deprivation and ethnicity will underlying much of the difference in case rates seen at local authority level.
When it comes to outbreaks, care home and hospital outbreaks remain as low as they've ever been.
As do schools given the Easter hols.
Perhaps still a little early but a good sign to see no signal (yet) for outbreaks/incidents in workplaces notified to PHE either.
As has been widely reported, hospital admissions continue to fall across the country.
And as community infection rates fall and younger people start getting their first jab, ICU admissions are also still falling.
It's important to remember that people are still dying from COVID-19, but the numbers are orders of magnitude better than they have been.
And finally, first dose vaccine uptake is now over 90% for *ALL* age groups >65yrs.
This is pretty incredible and a huge achievement for everyone involved. Bear in mind that most years flu vaccination uptake for over 65y/os peaks at around 70%. /end
Gov data shows how price promos are more likely to be applied to unhealthy junk food rather than healthier foods.
And rather than saving people ££, they can lead to around 22% *more* purchases than would otherwise happen, with *more* money spent and *more* consumption.
That's why companies use these promotions.
That's also why the policy was in the obesity strategy in the first place. The irony being that it is more likely to help than hinder the impact of the cost of living crisis on individuals and families.
In today's @Telegraph, Sally O'Brien & I discuss @HealthFdn / @IpsosUK polling results on public attitudes to gov policy on alcohol, tobacco, & unhealthy food (no £-wall🔓)
🧵Tl,dr: While gov has a preference for individual responsibility, the public still think gov should act.
Gains in healthy life-expectancy have stalled, childhood obesity continues to rise, alcohol-related hospital admissions are up, and tobacco still causes over 500,000 admissions a year.
And there are huge inequalities with more deprived areas disproportionately impacted.
Yet the recent trend of unwinding public health policy continues.
The tobacco control plan is unpublished, junk food ad bans have been delayed, plans for a national approach to health inequalities have gone & there's been nothing on alcohol since 2012.
First the good news. COVID cases in hospital clearly falling, in all ages, regions (except perhaps still plateauing in Yorkshire and Humber).
There's still a lag on cases in intensive care and on deaths, but they'll drop soon as well.
Flu, however, seems to be on the rise.
Overall case & admission rates are relatively low, but trending up.
And with a higher % of lab respiratory samples (sent in by dr from people with chest symptoms) testing for flu than at the same time in the past 5 yrs. i.e., it's early
This is a really helpful and timely piece of work by @davidfinchthf.
Along with last week's @TheIFS report on how government ££ are spent, it's clear that we need to do more to align public health funding with local needs. 🧵
Over the last decade, gains in life expectancy in England have stalled.
And it will be no surprise that the impact has not been felt evenly by everyone.
While life expectancy continues to increase for people living in the least deprived parts of the country, people from the most deprived communities are dying earlier.
This type of shortsighted policy review has reared its head again.
Health is an *asset* & the types of obesity policies being looked at here are exactly the ones that are both most effective AND most likely to narrow inequalities. 🧵