Our latest data show #COVID19 rates continued to increase in England, with trends in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland being uncertain in the latest week.
Due to low positivity rates, caution should be taken when interpreting small changes in trends ow.ly/eXTh50F88Ww
In England, the number of people with #COVID19 increased in the North West, West Midlands, London and the South East, while early signs of a decrease were seen in the East of England.
Cases not compatible with the Alpha variant (known as the UK variant) continued to increase in England in the most recent week.
It is likely these cases are representative of the Delta variant (first identified in India) ow.ly/DmbH50F893L
Commenting on today’s results, Sarah Crofts, Head of Analytical Outputs for the #COVID19 Infection Survey, said:
We regularly update our interactive #COVID19 insights tool with the latest data and trends, including infections, hospitalisations, deaths and antibody rates across the UK.
We've led the development of a new method for estimating the number of excess deaths across UK countries.
Julie Stanborough talks us through the data released today and how this new method will give us a better understanding in this complex area ➡️ ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…
Expected number of deaths used to calculate excess mortality is now estimated from age-specific mortality rates rather than death counts, so changes in population size and age structure are taken into account. Our new method also accounts for trends in population mortality rates.
In 2023, the new method estimates 10,994 excess deaths in the UK, which is 20,448 fewer than the current method.
We've published a new article exploring the disability, health status, ethnic group, religion and employment of people of different sexual orientations (aged 16 years and over) in England and Wales using #Census2021 data.
#Census2021 included a voluntary question about sexual orientation of usual residents aged 16 and over:
▪️ 89.4% said they were straight or heterosexual
▪️ 3.2% identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another sexual orientation (LGB+)
▪️ 7.5% did not respond to the question
People who identified as LGB+ were younger on average, with a far higher proportion aged between 16 and 34 years (57.9%) than in the overall population of England and Wales (29.6%).
However, different LGB+ sexual orientation groups had markedly different age distributions.