Reading university has lent 3 of its best PCR machines to expand Public Health England's live virus testing capacity. It has also supported the national effort in a number of another ways: ....
The Financial Times has today published an article in which it gives the results of its analysis of deaths in care homes and states that nearly 11,000 more deaths have occurred in care homes than would have done in previous years. ..... While it is not clear that this can be taken as the best indication of the number of deaths in care homes, it is a component of the overall excess deaths which does add to the already 20,000 deaths in hospital attributed to Covid-19, showing the gravity of the present epidemic.
Progress or decline of the Covid-19 epidemic is assessed by the R0 value, the average number of people infected by one infected person. Values known so far are: China (Wuhan) 0.1, Germany 0.7, Italy 0.8. A new generation of infected people according to the R0 value will appear roughly every week. The very small value from Wuhan indicates a rapid extinction of the virus to the point at which containment can be reasserted and any sporadic outbreaks suppressed. With its R0 around 0.8 Italy has only managed to halve the number of disease cases in the four weeks after the peak of infections.
The Governing Body of Berkshire West CCG will meet in public at 9.30-12.30 on Tuesday, 10th March 2020 at 57-59, Bath Road, Reading RG30 2BA. You can register online to attend here. Registration closes at 12 noon the day before the meeting. You are invited to submit questions relating to the agenda before a meeting takes place. To allow time to respond, we would ask that questions are submitted, no later than three working days in advance.
