Nando’s-style Covid alert levels are binned just as cases are starting to rise again
The Nando-style Covid alert levels have been thrown out just as cases are starting to rise again.
This is the latest step back to pre-pandemic life following the announcement that the NHS Covid app would be retired next month.
Government scientists have decided to abolish the sliding scale system that indicated the threat level of the virus.
Officials have said it is no longer necessary as the majority of the population is now not at risk of serious illness from Covid.
They say this is due to the widespread uptake of vaccines, immunity to infections and available treatments for people identified as at risk.
The Nando-style Covid alert levels have been thrown out just as cases are starting to rise again
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Analysts from the Office for National Statistics estimated that nearly 1.7 million Britons were carrying the virus on any given day of the week up to March 13. This is an increase of almost 14 percent compared to the previous week
The software downloaded more than 31 million times was responsible for the hated ‘pingdemic’. Britons were encouraged to enter their positive test results into the app so that it can send alerts to anyone they have recently been close to, letting them know they are infected and should self-isolate
Alert scales have been an important tool during the pandemic, informing the public about current threat levels.
And his retirement comes days after officials announced the NHS’s Covid app would be shut down next month.
The software, downloaded more than 31 million times in England and Wales, was responsible for the much hated ‘ping epidemic’.
The app told people to self-isolate for up to 10 days if they had been in close contact — within six feet for more than 15 minutes — with an infected person.
While Britons were never legally required to do so, hundreds of thousands a week were told to self-isolate at the height of the ‘pingdemic’ in the summer of 2021.
In addition, Britain’s long-running Covid survey has also been scrapped.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Covid Infection Survey released its last regular report last week – barely three years since its launch in April 2020.
But the end of the survey, along with the alerts and the NHS app, comes as infections from the virus in England rise to their highest levels yet in 2023.
The ONS survey’s swan song report warned that one in 40 people across the country is infected with the virus, rising to one in 17 in some parts.
The final report estimated that nearly 1.7 million Britons were carrying the virus on any given day of the week up to March 13. This was an increase of nearly 14 percent from the previous week.
Leading experts fear the outbreak will continue to gain momentum in the coming weeks as part of the virus’s natural cycle.
Some have even called for the return of masks.
Government scientists have decided to abolish the sliding scale system that indicated the threat level of the virus
The North West recorded the highest Covid prevalence in England with an estimated 4.14 per cent of people infected. This works out to about one in 25, although the ONS said it could be as high as one in 17. This was followed by the East Midlands at 3.36 percent
Analysts from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that nearly 1.73 million Britons were carrying the virus on any given day of the week up to March 13. This is an increase of nearly 14 per cent from the previous week, when an estimated 1.52 million Britons are estimated to be infected
GP practices in parts of the country have even started canceling appointments as they have ‘exceptionally low’ staff levels due to the upswing.
Michelle Bowen, head of health surveillance spread at the ONS, said: ‘This week’s data shows that the number of infections in England is on the rise.
However, the trend is uncertain in the rest of the UK.
‘In England, positivity increased among children and the over-50s. The North West, East Midlands and South East of England all saw increases in infections, although the trend is uncertain in all other regions.’
In recent months, the ONS survey has helped track the size and progress of the 2022 Christmas wave, which peaked at nearly three million infections, as well as the latest rise in the virus’s prevalence.
In the absence of official estimates of Covid levels, NHS-recorded hospitalization data will be one of the few remaining data sources to give any idea of prevalence, along with death records.
The UK Health Security Agency has said the alert level system could be reintroduced if necessary.