Interview with Gareth Lewis on BBC Radio Wales on the latest situation with #Covid19 in #Wales.
Positivity rate – 17.9% at the moment, hit that towards the end of October last year during the first week of the firebreak, so when the numbers were lower a decision was made to shut most of the country down.
But for several months well over 90% of those at the highest risk have been vaccinated and the rollout continues. Over half of 16/17 year olds are now vaccinated.
In relation to cases, we have seen the number of patients in hospital fall by 80% and the number of deaths by 90%.
There are two reasons for this, when looking at the proportion of cases by age group as we are allowing people to carry on with some normality a much higher proportion of the cases are in younger people. They are less likely to end up in hospital and even less likely again to die. Also, there is the protection afforded from the antibodies in the population.
Scotland – schools have just gone back. Rates have been rising, but this started before the schools went back. Most Schools only went back last Wednesday so difficult to see if this will accelerate any spread.
Germany announced this week they are no longer using the case rate to determine interventions but focusing more on health demand in hospitals.
Germany has a far better health system in terms of capacity. The UK has 2.5 acute beds per 1000, Germany has 8. They have 4.5 times as many ICU beds per person as well.
Stats Jamie
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