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If anyone is wondering why England seems to be testing so much more than the rest of the UK right now, it is because they are including Lateral Flow Tests in their pillar 2 figures (both tests and cases), and the rest of the UK are not!
They've been using them since October, but you can see from this that the amount being used has really picked up since the start of this year.
Lateral Flow Tests are mostly used to test people who aren't displaying any symptoms, so the positivity rate will be quite low. According to this ( https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/national/19020838.lateral-flow-tests-detect-37-000-asymptomatic-covid-19-cases/), there have been 37,000 positive ones in the past 'number of weeks'
Assuming that means just 2 weeks, then that would be 37,000 out of around 2 million, or a positivity rate of around 1.8%. Over the latest available week, the England PCR only positivity rate has been around 14%
Then the issue comes when you throw lateral flow tests and PCR tests into the one figure!
Well, it's not necessarily an issue on its own, but it makes comparisons like the ones on my page with the rest of the UK, or even the English positivity rate from the past, quite useless
Well, it's not necessarily an issue on its own, but it makes comparisons like the ones on my page with the rest of the UK, or even the English positivity rate from the past, quite useless
And as England makes up the bulk of the UK, it makes it hard to see what is really going on with the UK wide positivity rate on my page too.
The PCR specific positivity rate/tests conducted figure for England is displayed on the UK gov dashboard, but it is based on specimen date figures over the past week, so it's hard to compare it to the daily reported figures for Scotland/Wales/NI
I'll need to figure out what to do with it soon.. but in short, the English testing figures and positivity rate on my page right now aren't comparable with the rest of the UK! And the UK wide positivity rate figure is probably lower than reality right now
Also, the inclusion of lateral flow positive tests will also be inflating the English case numbers in comparison to the rest of the UK a little
Assuming it was 37,000 positive LFTs in the past 2 weeks, that would have been around 6% of English cases in that time
Assuming it was 37,000 positive LFTs in the past 2 weeks, that would have been around 6% of English cases in that time
Not trying to say it's a conspiracy or anything, I'm just saying the way I collect the data on my page for each nation means that England currently isn't comparable to the rest of the UK, and for their specific positivity/testing rate you should check here https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing?areaType=nation&areaName=England
But I will try to find a solution soon! It can be added to the 20 page long to-do list
