Coronavirus cases ‘surge’ due to wider measuring system

ROYAL BOROUGH: An apparent spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the borough is not due to a sudden surge of people falling ill, the Royal Borough has confirmed – it is the result of a change in measuring system.

Between Thursday and Friday last week, the number of confirmed cases in the borough appeared to jump from 312 to 399. However, the council has stated that this does not reflect a significant increase in cases.

Until last week, official numbers of COVID-19 cases included only swab tests carried out in Public Health England labs and NHS hospital settings. This is known as ‘Pillar 1’ data.

Recently, official figures have also started including data from swab tests carried out in the community, such as care homes. This is ‘Pillar 2’ data.

These are both different from the ‘R rate’ (reproduction rate).

On Thursday, July 2, data published through the Government’s official public records on coronavirus.data.gov.uk changed to include cases confirmed through Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 testing combined. It had previously only included Pillar 1 cases.

There remains 399 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the borough, at the time of going to print.