Thread by @WillHayCardiff

Given that Wales and England currently have significantly different sets of Covid rules it is worth taking a look at the coronavirus situations in both countries.

I have used a few different metrics so let's take a look:

[Thread]

Infection rate

Wales has had a lower infection rate than England consistently since the spring. Dipping as low as 8.8 in mid May in Wales, Eng's rate never went below 19. Once both countries started to open up (though Wales' re-opening was slower) cases began to steadily rise.

The latest data runs just up to England's so called "freedom day" and shows that England's rate is just under 400 (399.6) whereas Wales' 205. It is important to note that the Welsh data is one day more recent.

As well as the slower re-opening, the reason for Wales' lower infection rate could be because its vaccination programme is further ahead than England. This both reduces the chance of some who is vaccinated passing on the virus and the chance of some catching it.

What about deaths?

Though cases are flying in up in both England and Wales the amount of deaths has stayed very low.

This graph shows the amount of deaths a day in Wales since February:

This graph shows the amount of deaths a day in England since February:

It is hard to directly compare the amount of deaths in England and Wales when looking at the raw numbers because Wales has such a smaller population.

To do this WalesOnline have looked at the deaths per 100,000 for each day for both countries. This is a clumsy metric because just one death in Wales can skew the data significantly - but it offers a way to visualise the situation.

Hospital admittance

In previous waves there has been a clear and direct link between cases and hospital admittance. This link has been weakened significantly by the vaccine but not broken.

After the significant spike in cases (and because of the lower vaccination rate), England has seen an increase in hospital admissions - although not at close to the same rate as previous waves.

Wales' has been creeping up but is still significantly below the rates we saw in May.

This graph compares the two countries with the figures on the left applying to Wales and the right to England.

Vaccination rates

Despite unlocking earlier than Wales, England has a lower percentage of its population vaccinated.

Though Wales had a slow start to the rollout it now comfortably the most advanced UK nation in terms of percentage of population given two jabs. As of July 18, 76.3% of Welsh adults had been given two jabs compared to 68.3 in England.

This graph compares the two countries:

Highest areas

I's hard to compare 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿as whole entities because they are so different in size. Plus 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿has far fewer areas of very dense population.

Instead of comparing 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿to 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, it is interesting to compare Wales as a whole with regions of Eng as the sizes are more similar.

This is how Wales compares to regions of England:

North East - 910.1 cases per 100,000
Yorkshire and The Humber - 536.5
North West - 515.6
West Midlands - 443
East Midlands - 398.2
South West - 386.4
London - 333.5
East of England - 324.8
South East - 321.8
Wales - 205

The lists below show the local authorities with the highest infection rate in England compared to Wales. The majority of which are both in the north west of their respective countries.

England:

Redcar and Cleveland - 1,267.2
South Tyneside - 1,237.3
Middlesbrough - 1,178.2

Wales:

Denbighshire - 460.8
Wrexham - 333.2
Conwy - 332.8

Full story here:
walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-new…