Deep within the UK’s shocking Covid data, there may be reasons for optimism
Analysis: soaring cases in schools are adding to the pool of the immune - which could soon see some community infections fall
It is hard to be upbeat about the latest numbers. The government's Covid dashboard is awash with red and upward-pointing arrows. New cases have climbed 17% on the week. Hospital admissions are up 11% and deaths have increased by 21%. This is not where we wanted to be nearly two years into the pandemic - and 10 months into the most successful mass vaccination campaign in the history of the NHS.
So is this what we have to get used to? Nearly 1,000 hospital admissions a day, and nearly 1,000 deaths a week? There are so many forces at work in a pandemic, operating on different timescales, pushing in opposite directions, that reliable predictions are a fantasy. But delve into the data and there are, perhaps, some reasons for optimism.
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