#17,704
During the height of the COVID pandemic we got some of our best data out of the UK, with multiple surveillance programs running (e.g. Imperial College REACT studies, the SIREN Study, etc.), 55 detailed technical briefings issued by the UKHSA, along with UK's COVID dashboard.
But over time, as both COVID testing and cases declined and the UK government moved away from pandemic mitigation efforts - studies wound down, technical briefings were released less frequently, and as of last May, the UK's COVID dashboard was no longer being updated.
By the time the WHO declared the end of the `COVID Emergency' last May, the UK - along with nearly every other country on the planet - had dismantled the bulk of their COVID testing, surveillance and reporting systems (see No News Is . . . Now Commonplace), and last month the WHO moved to monthly instead of weekly COVID Epi reports.
But six weeks ago a new, highly mutated variant (BA.2.86) appeared in Israel, Denmark, and the UK. While its ultimate impact remains far from certain - it continues to spread globally - and it has raised concerns that COVID may still be capable of throwing us a curve ball.
So much so that on August 31st the UK Health Security Agency announced: UKHSA To Move COVID/Flu Jabs Forward Due To Concerns Over BA.2.86.
While this new viral interloper presents a legitimate concern, we've also seen rising COVID cases across the UK due to other variants (e.g. EG.5.1, and several XBB sub-variants). Last week, the UKHSA announced the launch of a new, and improved, COVID, Influenza (and other infectious diseases) Dashboard.
UKHSA launches new infectious disease data dashboard
New tool will include data on a range of infections this winter.From:UK Health Security Agency Published 26 September 2023
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has launched the first iteration of its new dashboard, which will serve as a centralised source for infectious disease and outbreak data this winter, making it publicly available in a timely and transparent way.
The dashboard, which goes live today (Tuesday 26 September), will be updated on Thursday each week. It will initially feature the latest information on a number of respiratory diseases, including:
- COVID-19
- influenza (flu)
- respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
- adenovirus
- human metapneumovirus (hMPV)
- parainfluenza
- rhinovirus
Over time, the data dashboard will be expanded to provide additional health security data, including data relating to incidents of public interest.
The new dashboard is still in development and builds on the huge success of the existing COVID-19 dashboard which, at the peak of the third lockdown, had a record 76.5 million hits in just 24 hours.
The existing dashboard, developed at the height of the pandemic to make information on the virus publicly available, will remain operational for now and should be considered the current data source for COVID-19. This product will be decommissioned in due course.
High levels of influenza during winter 2022 to 2023 and outbreaks of a variety of infectious diseases highlighted the need for UKHSA to be alert to many health threats alongside COVID-19. This new dashboard will allow the agency to share vital data on common winter illnesses that can severely impact communities and health services each year.
Professor Steven Riley, Director General of Data, Analytics and Surveillance at UKHSA, said:
The COVID-19 dashboard was a groundbreaking tool that demonstrated the public’s appetite to understand data and provided local and national decision-makers with crucial information that helped to inform response. It is vital we continue to provide this information in a timely and transparent way.
While our new dashboard will initially focus on respiratory diseases, we will look to expand the information we publish constantly, and we would therefore appreciate your feedback on what you would like to see going forward.
The winter of 2022 to 2023 highlighted the impact that dual threats such as COVID-19 and influenza can have, and so it’s vital that we make our surveillance data accessible.
In preparation for winter, UKHSA has already announced the new phase of the SIREN study, SIREN 2.0. This study will see the team continue to work with NHS sites in the coming months to assess the impact that respiratory diseases and their new strains have on healthcare workers and settings.
Data from additional winter surveillance of COVID-19 will also help UKHSA to track BA.2.86 and other variants and will feed into the new data dashboard. Details of this additional surveillance for winter 2023 will be announced shortly.
Today, in addition to the SIREN 2.0 study mentioned above, he UKHSA announced the launch of a new study (with ONS) on COVID-19 this winter.
UKHSA and ONS launch new Winter COVID-19 Infection Study
A study to gather vital data on COVID-19 this winter has been launched by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).From:UK Health Security Agency Published 2 October 2023
The Winter COVID-19 Infection Study (WCIS) will run from November 2023 to March 2024, involving up to 200,000 participants.
UKHSA previously commissioned the Coronavirus Infection Survey (CIS), carried out by the ONS during the pandemic, in partnership with scientific study leads Oxford University.
Recognised globally as the gold standard for surveillance of the virus, CIS gathered and analysed more than 11.5 million swab tests and 3 million blood tests from April 2020 to March 2023.
The new WCIS is a different study and will involve up to 32,000 lateral flow tests being carried out each week, providing key insight into the levels of COVID-19 circulating across the wider community. This sample will be broadly representative of the population according to key characteristics.
While widespread vaccination has allowed us to live with COVID-19, some people remain more vulnerable to severe illness, and this in turn can lead to increased pressures on the NHS over the winter months.
That is why UKHSA is urging eligible adults to book their flu and COVID-19 vaccines online via the NHS website, by downloading the NHS App, or by calling 119 for free, to give themselves the best protection against severe illness and hospitalisation.
UKHSA’s existing surveillance systems already provide up-to-date information on hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates, but the introduction of this study will allow us to detect changes in the infection hospitalisation rate (IHR), which requires accurate measurement of infection levels in the community.
Calculating the IHR will enable UKHSA to assess the potential for increased demand on health services due to changes in the way the virus is spreading, which could be driven by the arrival of any new variants.
Professor Steven Riley, Director General of Data, Analytics and Surveillance at UKHSA, said:The data we collected alongside the ONS during the pandemic provided us with a huge amount of valuable insight, so I am delighted that we are able to work together again to keep policymakers and the wider public informed in the coming months.The study will use lateral flow devices (LFDs) supplied by UKHSA. The latest UKHSA technical briefing, published on 22 September, included initial findings of tests performed in the laboratory at Porton Down to examine the effectiveness of LFDs in detecting BA.2.86, and found no reduction in sensitivity compared to previous variants.
UKHSA continues to lead the way internationally on COVID-19 surveillance and by re-introducing a study of positivity in the community, we can better detect changes in the behaviour of the virus.
The model and scale of this study could also be converted into a programme that captures data on different respiratory viruses, should that be required in future.
Deputy National Statistician Emma Rourke at the ONS said:
ONS is committed to building on the experience of standing up the gold standard CIS. Our resources and statistical expertise are here for the public good, and we are delighted to be delivering this study in partnership with UKHSA.
There remains a need for robust data to help us continue to understand the virus and its effects during the winter months.
As well as working to provide UKHSA with regular rates of positivity, we will also be looking at analysis of symptoms, risk factors and the impact of respiratory infections, including long COVID, as part of this important surveillance.
UK Health Security Agency press office
10 South Colonnade
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