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York coronavirus updates go online every Friday
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Published by David Dunning at 5:27pm 10th July 2020. (Updated at 5:32pm 10th July 2020)
City of York Council is publishing weekly updates to provide residents and local organisations the latest coronavirus data and local information.
Having previously been published on a monthly basis, updates will now be posted every Friday, with both pillar 1 and pillar 2 data being made more regularly available from the Government.
This follows the council’s lobbying efforts to secure more regular and localised data, as outlined in a recent letter to the Department for Health and Social Care.
An example of the information provided:
In week 25 (13 June to 19 June), 26 deaths occurred in York, 5 fewer than the average weekly number for 2014-18.
The peak week for ‘excess’ deaths and for Covid deaths was week18 (25 April to 1 May).
During the course of last week, a misleading story in the national media, relating to York’s figures, was published.
In response, the Council wants to ensure that residents and communities are provided the most up to date and reliable information on the pandemic in the city, and is signposting people to its York Open Data.
Councillor Keith Aspden, Leader of City of York Council and Chair of York’s Outbreak Management Advisory Board said:
“Our residents, communities and local businesses have been fantastic in their response to the pandemic and in following social distancing guidance.
It is important to reiterate that the rates of infection in York are currently low, however, we can’t afford to be complacent.
We have seen in other parts of the country spikes in the number of positive cases.
Data helps us to identify and control any spikes and we know how important it is to share this data with the public on a regular basis.
Following extensive lobbying efforts by the Council, we very much welcome the Government’s commitment to providing more complete set of data, which will crucially help us make informed decisions about public health matters in the city.
Our Outbreak Management Advisory Board is continuing to meet regularly and residents watch online to follow how we are working together with our partners to respond to the pandemic.”
Sharon Stoltz, Director for Public Health at City of York Council said:
“We know how important it is to see accurate and timely information put in the public domain, particularly as we learn to live with Coronavirus.
We are using public health data to form our response to the pandemic and have been publishing monthly updates.
We are now being provided regular pillar 2 data from the Government, so we can publish this data on a more regular basis.
Washing our hands, social distancing, wearing face coverings and getting tested and self-isolating if you have symptoms remain our most important defence.”
The latest data is available to view online now at: https://data.yorkopendata.org/dataset/covid-19-daily-data-tracker
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