Re: Weekly Covid cases in England up to highest level since June
Originally Posted by
Mups
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I read a different perspective on these Corvid figures, and I must say this made sense to me.
What do you think? Have there been many more cases of Covid amongst us all along, but we are only finding out now because of testing?
It's a valid viewpoint but not the whole story.
Government esting and tracing is still not as effective as it should be (IMO, a shambles - see my posts on the subject) but the recent intervention by local councils has extended the coverage dramatically and hence discovered more cases.
But, worldwide, every relaxation of lockdown has led to a surge of new cases, often amongst the 18-40 age group, as people rush to socialise - this, of course, happening in the UK.
New cases, though, are only recorded cases. IIRC, 80% of those infected with the virus will experience and display no symptoms so may not be tested, even if contacted.
Until widespread antibody testing is implemented, nobody knows how many people have already had COVID-19.
In the UK, there have been 344,000 recorded cases of COV-ID-19. As the current rate of recorded cases increases to 2,000 a day then 250,000 new cases will have been recorded by Xmas. That's a lot, but if nationwide antibody testing doubles or triples those figures that's an awful lot.