Reported case rates are still mostly falling throughout the UK, and across the planet as a whole. Although of course, a large part of that is due to a reduction in testing.
The hospital figures are falling across the UK too!
Here are some of the hospital admission figures for England. It has been a lot of up and down over 2022/2023, but the rates right now are some of the lowest they've been throughout that period.
Similar to cases, the number of new deaths from the virus is still mostly falling throughout the UK and across the planet too.
The number of excess deaths in the UK varies quite a lot by week. It was about 5% above normal this week, which was lower than the past couple of weeks.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
After three years, and 800 updates, today marks the final time I'll be updating the Scotland Coronavirus Tracker.
Thank you so much to everyone for all of the support and encouragement over that time. Being able to run this page for so long has been the honour of my life 🥹
We're actually averaging under 100 new cases a day now, for the first time since August 2020! Although of course that is largely a result of low testing levels.
The latest wastewater figures show that the levels there are still low (the lowest in nearly two years), although it does look like there has been a slight increase during the first week of May.
So quite a large jump in reported cases this week, across most age groups and council areas.
The number of new tests reported also increased again. I wasn't sure if we'd see many more increases like this at this point, with testing access so limited.
Deaths from the virus were thankfully down a little bit this week.
Although excess deaths were unfortunately up, and were 12% above average for this time of the year. That is the highest they've been since the middle of January.
So a pretty big fall in Scotland, but not too much change in England/Wales/Northern Ireland.
Within England, rates are only currently rising in the North West and Yorkshire & The Humber regions. They're highest in the North East, but rates there have stopped increasing now.
And looking at age groups within England, it is a bit up and down again. It is only the 70+ group that has consistently stayed on the same trend, and rates there are currently the highest by quite a distance, sadly.
Yesterday I had the honour of attending Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II's funeral at Westminster Abbey.
It is hard to put the experience into words. At times it felt like a momentous celebration of her life, and at other times it was just a really somber goodbye.
I was invited along with 182 others because I was a recipient of an MBE in this year's Queens Birthday Honours.
I will forever be grateful to the Royal Family for inviting me to be a part of such an important occasion, and allowing me to pay my respects to such a special person.
Like most, I had never met the Queen. But she was always there as a constant, calm presence in my life.
Whether speaking to us through her annual Christmas messages, or in times of crisis, she was always there to provide comfort, soothe our minds, and help guide us forward.