This week's T&T data - covers 29/4-05/05

🧵tl,dr:
- fewer LFDs
- fewer cases
- fewer contacts reached and it's taking longer, plus what might be the role of international cases
- and why this is the last update to our @HealthFdn performance tracker.

gov.uk/government/pub…
Firstly on the TT data.

Number of people tested is down this week by 7% to 4.61m, with number of positive cases also down 9% to 14,313.
The drop in people tested is again due to changes in the use of rapid LFD tests for people without symptoms, rather than changes to PCR test use.

And nearly 2/3 of the fall is due to less reported secondary school testing.
Across the regions, there are ongoing differences in testing rates - lowest in London and the highest in the East Mids.
When looking by local authority, it varies by nearly five-fold.

This could be for very good reasons, but also it may also indicate structural differences in test access with implications for viral spread.

We plan to explore this separately in the coming weeks.
Much of the contact tracing performance is largely unchanged.

91% of cases were reached, and 82% provided contact details.

39,875 contacts identified with around 4.6 contacts per case.
But the percentage of contacts reached is falling - now at 84%. Why?
Main reason is that fewer contacts are from the same household as the case. Now just 46%.
Non-HH contacts are more difficult to reach.

The percentage of contacts in the same HH is the same as ever at 96%, and the percentage of non-HH contacts reached is also largely unchanged.

This week it's down a little at 73% compared with generally hovering between 75% and 78%.
One thing mentioned in the T&T report is the impact of international arrivals on contact tracing, and numbers by country are now reported in the data tables.

In the 2 wks from 22/4-5/5, over 800 international arrivals tested positive. In the preceding 2 weeks it was over 1,400.
Here, contact tracing everyone on an aircraft is both arduous and time consuming.

This is seen in the end-to-end times, where % of contacts reached <3 days of the case tested fell from 80% at the end March to 59% 2wks later, before picking up a bit to 68% in the most recent wk.
And, as mentioned in thread on today's surveillance report, I'm really concerned that yet *again*, its the areas of the country most in need of socioeconomic recovery that are being most impacted by rising case rates and variants.

See @kallmemeg's excellent thread on the latest variant data from earlier this evening for more.

And finally, after nearly a year since T&T launched, today's the last (planned) update to our @HealthFdn T&T performance tracker from @cfraserepi and me (big thanks to comms colleagues on this).

health.org.uk/news-and-comme…
As we get closer to it's anniversary, we'll write a short blog about the first 12 months of T&T, but here are some of my thoughts on the situation and why now seems like a good time to stop.

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More from @ADMBriggs

13 May
Short thread on today's PHE Surveillance Report, covers 3rd-9th May.🧵

Shows very similar case rates to previous weeks, but with some clear divergence for 10-19y/os, and for parts of East mids, NW, and Yorkshire/Humber.

gov.uk/government/sta…
Furthermore, the significant increases in case rates in some parts of the country continues to raise concerns about potential community spread of variants of concern such as VOC-21APR-02 (first identified in India) among the very places already most impacted by the pandemic.
In the most recent week, case rates in Bolton have doubled from 85 per 100,000 to 188 per 100,000, for Blackburn with Darwen they've doubled to 107/100,000.
Read 8 tweets
13 May
Latest REACT study shows that case rates between 15th April and 3rd May (round 11) fell by 50% compared with 11th - 30th March (round 10), from 0.20% to 0.10%

Differences by age, region, ethnicity and deprivation remain (with large uncertainty). short 🧵

imperial.ac.uk/medicine/resea…
*Note very wide uncertainty intervals as case rates fall*

In general, highest rates estimated in West Mids and London, and likely falls in all ages except 25-34y/o.

ONS survey tomorrow will update on this.
See the adjusted results showing general trend for higher case rates in bigger households, more deprived and Asian ethnicity - esp with higher viral loads (right hand column).

Again - big uncertainty but consistent with everything else we see with COVID and inequalities.
Read 4 tweets
6 May
Latest T&T data: wk 22-28 April

- no big shifts in numbers tested by LFDs/PCR, and ongoing fall in +ve cases

- but some interesting changes in contact tracing: fewer contacts reached and it's taking longer, and the reasons aren't straightforward🧵

gov.uk/government/pub…
While the number of cases transferred to contact tracing fell by 12% to 10,793, the number of close contacts identified rose by 2% to 49,151.

For the first time since the start of August, avg contacts per case was >5.
And of those contacts, the percentage reached has dropped wk on wk for the past 5 weeks, from 90% to 84%.
Read 15 tweets
6 May
This week's PHE surveillance report, 26th April - 2nd May

- despite easing of social restrictions & schools returning after Easter hols, case numbers still going down among all ages.
- still regional/local variation
- and ++concerns around variants.🧵
gov.uk/government/sta…
Still some big differences by region - particularly looking at younger adults in Yorkshire and Humber.

Case rates in Y&H are 42/100,000, more than 3 times the rates in the SW at just 12/100,000.
This is even more apparent when looking at data by local authority.
Read 14 tweets
22 Apr
Updated our T&T performance tracker, covers 8-14th April.

Key points
- lots of changes to LFD use, with differences across the country
- despite falling cases, end-to-end journey time from symptoms to reaching contacts increasing

Detail in 🧵

health.org.uk/news-and-comme…
After a dip over the Easter bank holiday w/e, number of people tested increased by 15% to 4.4m

although this is still some way off the peak of 6.2m four weeks earlier
The changes have been mainly due to variations in use of rapid lateral flow devices (LFDs).

These have been rolled out by the government for people without symptoms over recent months and are now available to everyone in England.
Read 18 tweets
22 Apr
PHE's surveillance report for 12th to 18th April now out. 🧵

Second week of school holidays for most, but some schools will have gone back.

Tl,dr:
- case numbers down & vaccination up
- persistent inequalities by geography, ethnicity, & deprivation

gov.uk/government/sta…
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)
Read 18 tweets

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