Coronavirus

UK Infections and Antibody Survey passes key milestone as 3 millionth swab test collected

Categories: Coronavirus, Office for National Statistics, ONS

Set up in days to meet an urgent need for better information on how Covid-19 was affecting the community population, the UK Covid-19 Infection Survey has become a indispensable source of  data on the pandemic. With more than three million swab tests conducted in over two hundred thousand households, the National Statistician thanks and pays tribute to everyone involved.     

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Nice one CHAPS: how Bank of England card data are telling us more about consumer spending

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS

The pandemic has had such an impact on our everyday lives – movement restrictions, store closures, panic buying and people occupying more time at home have all influenced our spending patterns and consumer behaviour. David Matthewson explains how, for the first time, the ONS will publish credit and debit card transaction data from the Bank of England that will give us more detailed information on how we have been spending our money over the last twelve months.  

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Counting deaths involving coronavirus: a year in review

Categories: Coronavirus, Population

Since before the pandemic the Office for National Statistics has been publishing death registrations in England and Wales on a weekly basis. What was once a little-known dataset has become one of the most important and widely used documents for tracking deaths throughout the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Today’s deaths registered weekly in England and Wales marks the end of 2020 death registration. But how does 2020 compare to previous years? Sarah Caul explains the complexities behind mortality comparisons…

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What do the latest analyses from ONS and PHE tell us about ethnic inequalities in COVID-19?

Categories: Coronavirus, ONS

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England, people in some ethnic groups, particularly Black and Asian groups, were more likely to be infected, diagnosed and die with COVID-19 than people in the White group. The reasons for this are complex and recent reports by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Race Disparity Unit summarise the available evidence to date on reasons for the inequalities reported. It is critical that we understand the reasons in order that we can take steps to protect people from across the population. With so much analysis published, it can be difficult to keep up to date with what it shows. Here Chris White (Office for National Statistics) and Justine Fitzpatrick (Public Health England) summarise the latest reports.

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