You asked
Under the freedom of information request can ONS give an explanation into why the Covid-19 figures reported on the weekly NOIDs reports for England and Wales vastly differ from other published reports provided by the ONS?
Can you please clarify that the legal responsibility for completing NOIDs has been removed?
If this is the case can you please confirm when changes in reporting NOIDs reports where put in place. Can you please provide any documentation that communicated the change.
Can you also confirm that when the weekly reporting of NOIDs is a statutory obligation and Covid-19 was added in March 2020 and the process was updated 26th October and has yet to be superseded or replaced. Why the ONS data is higher than the NOIDS reports.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The results published in our weekly bulletins and monthly articles are from the COVID-19 Infection Survey. This is a representative household survey which estimates the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in the community, with or without symptoms. Community in this instance refers to private residential households and it excludes those in hospitals, care homes and/or other institutional settings.
The survey has been running since April 2020 and we currently sample around 150,000 participants per fortnight. To test for the virus, we use real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing. At each study visit, we ask everyone aged 2 years or older in each household to have a nose and throat swab.
We use statistical modelling to estimate the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 at any point in time. The model adjusts the survey results to be more representative of the overall population in terms of age, sex and region. Please see the methodology guide for more information.
Data from the weekly notifications of infectious diseases (NOIDs) reports are based on registered medical practitioners in England and Wales notifying a proper officer of the local authority, of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases, including COVID-19. This data is published by Public Health England.
Please contact Public Health England for more information about NOIDs. They can be contacted via email at wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk.