On Wednesday The Argus published a letter from me headed "Sick of the
facts", which was based on the cases per 100,000 scenario and which I
concluded by saying that the vast majority of the population are getting sick and tired of all these so-called "facts and
figures" and are now in the frame of mind of not believing a word the
government says.
Well, according to an article that appeared in the paper the following day
these statistics have become even more unreliable.
On Monday, Public Health England changed the way it records the
location of people who test positive for the virus.
No longer will they be based on where people actually live but, instead, on
where they are tested, which means, for example, that, everyone who attends
the walk-through coronavirus centre in Portslade and tests positive will be classified as a Brighton case, even if they live
in the Adur District Council part of Portslade. The same thing applies to
the other Brighton testing sites; if patients cross the border
from East Sussex into Brighton then they too will be added to the city's
"cases per 100,000".
So, don't be surprised if the next weekly batch of the city's statistics go
through the roof. It won't mean that Covid-19 is running rampant through
Brighton and Hove but, simply, that it now includes people who have no residential connection with Brighton whatsoever.
What on earth is the logic behind that? Anyone any idea?
Eric Waters
Lancing
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