Throughout the Covid pandemic, people have asked the media for more and more information about Covid patients, vaccination statistics and specifics about Covid related deaths.
Some government data has been made available to show the public just how the situation has been developing, locally and nationally, but what does the public (and journalists) have access to, and what don’t they?
What you can access
This is the some of the information everyone can access:
- The number of Covid cases found the day before
- The rolling rate of Covid cases in the area
- The number of people who have died in hospital, either with a positive Covid test or where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate
- The number of people who have died, due to Covid, in community settings
- Hospital activity — the number of Covid patients, those on ventilation and staffing absences
- The number of Covid vaccinations given — a breakdown of age groups and where on the Island
What are the restrictions?
One drawback is that these sources lag behind — some more than a week late and others by just a couple of days.
In other cases, national data is not available to be broken down in local areas or the Island is put together with Hampshire or Southampton so no specific numbers can be determined.
What doesn’t the public have access to?
Among the data the public, and press, do not have access to includes the age of those who died with Covid locally or when they caught the virus.
Data is also not released to show where cases were caught.
National stastistics
Recently, national data from the Office for National Statistics revealed the vaccination status of those who died from Covid-19, which found between January and July 51,281 deaths involved Covid.
Of those who died, only 640 occurred in people who were fully vaccinated compared to 38,964 unvaccinated people.
Local figures
Those national statistics are unable to be broken down locally, despite public interest.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has said the death reporting it does in the hospital does not require vaccination status, so does not have a robust figure.
To find that information out, it would need to access each patient’s medical history — which is forbidden, when not providing care.
NHS England has been asked if a trust breakdown would be released.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is part of. Read here to find about more about how that scheme works on the Island. Some alterations and additions may have been made by News OnTheWight. Ed
