Who to believe? How to believe? Once again, people are being left bemused by the constant change in the way coronavirus statistics are reported. Yesterday's debacle concerned so-called Pillar 1 positive cases (tests from hospital and key workers processed in public labs), and Pillar 2 cases (tests from drive-throughs and home testing processed in private labs), which revealed that thousands of Pillar 2 cases were being hidden.
Public Health England rushed out a bulletin showing that Salford had 10-15 virus cases per 100,000 people in the week of 15th to 21st June; possibly double or treble what was being reported previously (see previous Salford Star article for a full background – click here).
Also yesterday, data suddenly appeared on the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership website, which previously had one news story in the last week, with all the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 data right up to 30th June. The question is whether the local authorities and Greater Manchester Mayor had access to these figures before yesterday but were not sharing them.
Under the headline 'Local COVID-19 Cases in Greater Manchester Published For First Time', the article stated "Leaders are reassured that the city-region is not at risk at this point in time..."
Tables show that whereas Leicester has 135 positive virus cases per 100,000 people, Greater Manchester has an average 13.3 per 100,000.
Salford is shown as having 6.2 cases per 100,000, down from 10-15 cases per 100,000 shown in Public Health England data for the previous week and released yesterday (and reported in yesterday's article in the Salford Star).
According to these figures, Rochdale has the highest rate in Greater Manchester with 28.8, followed by Oldham with 27.8 and Bolton with 21.6. The rate in Manchester is 15.2.
"The Greater Manchester figures continue to decline" states the article "However, some of our ten districts have higher infection numbers and rates than others, and compared to the North West and national they are still higher than they should be....
"...Greater Manchester has access to more data than it's have ever had, including the 'pillar 2' testing data, so it can increasingly see where local infections are and make sure they're kept under control" it adds "Leaders are committed to publishing this data on a regular basis to help people make informed decisions about their local area..."
"An expert group has been established in Greater Manchester, including academics, clinicians and epidemiologists to help focus testing where it is most needed and particularly those who are at greatest risk from contracting Covid-19 for health reasons or the setting in which they live or work – care homes, schools, or certain factory settings" it states.
Public Health England data published yesterday revealed that, in Week 25 (15th-21st June), there were 44 virus outbreaks reported in schools nationally and 23 people were tested positive. Were any of these schools in Greater Manchester? None of the authorities are revealing this information.
The 44 school outbreaks reported compared with 28 outbreaks reported in hospitals (24 people tested positive) and 106 outbreaks reported in care homes (75 tested positive).
For what it is now worth, the latest number of virus cases in Salford, based on Pillar 1 tests, have increased by one to a total of 985, with no new virus-related deaths at Salford Royal Hospital.
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