Coronavirus: Public Health
(asked on 8th October 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to monitor the impact of covid-19 on public health.
From the week commencing 6 October 2023 to week commencing 20 September 2024, there have been an estimated 9,972 deaths from COVID-19, as measured by death registrations with COVID-19 on death certificates. Further information is available at the following link:
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to monitor the ongoing impact of COVID-19 through a variety of surveillance systems, including in general practices, through the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Surveillance Centre, in healthcare settings, and via the testing of patients in National Health Service and public health laboratories. In addition, a selection of these positive tests are sequenced to provide data on circulating variants and to potentially detect the arrival of new variants. This data is published on the data dashboard, and in surveillance reports, which are published weekly during the winter season, and fortnightly otherwise. The dashboard and surveillance reports are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/
During vaccination campaigns, data on the effectiveness of the vaccines are collected and analysed, to inform ongoing discussion for future campaigns, both in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness.
Following increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations during the waves that appear throughout the year, there is a proportionate increase in COVID-19 deaths. Based on UKHSA data, there is no evidence that recent waves or variants have shown a disproportionate level of severity or mortality. Further information is available at the following link:
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19
NHS England uses Urgent and Emergency Care Daily Situation Reports data to monitor COVID-19 impacts through general and acute bed closure data.