We have to record BOTH cases and hospitalisations.
Yes. cases matter less than the did as I have said often in here because the link is weakened between cases and deaths thanks to the vaccines.
But you cannot ignore cases because they are the only way to know if an area is rising or falling and if measures taken are working.
In reality the Pop Scores are the best guide which is why I focus on them more than ever these days. Because they tll you cases relative to population and chart what thos cases mean for the rise and fall of infections in each area.
In terms of decision making the key IS tp keep hospital numbers and the consequences icu, ventilators and deaths to a minimum so the NHS can function.
And again I focus on that every night with a full report of the hospital data across the regions and nations because that is npw so vital. But in their wisdom these numbers were stopped on the weeked some months back and so I can only do this Mondays to Fridays.
The rthird metric is the vaccinations which I also update daily for GM.
There may be different importance on each one at different times but the reality is we need all of these things.
Cases tell us - epecially via positivity rates added - if an area is rising or falling.
The Pop score charts each place relative to one another so we can see if they are goung up or down and how well measures are working.
The vaccinations versus the cases occurring there tell us how well we are doing in our best weapon to dampen Covid down.
And the hospital- ventilators - deaths show us the degree to whichour control over the outbreak is being strengthened by the measures and vaccinations.
These all interact. If you did not know how many cases were happening today and next week you could not know how good or bad the number of people in hospital and dying several weeks later because of those cases lopks and the extent to which the vaccination programme is working to mitigate the outbreak.