Coronavirus
(asked on 12th September 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to raise awareness of (a) the number of hospital admissions and (b) mortality from covid-19 variants.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to monitor the threat posed by COVID-19 through a range of surveillance systems and genomic capabilities which report on infection rates, hospitalisations and the risks posed by new variants.
UKHSA publishes a fortnightly flu and COVID-19 surveillance report. This includes data on COVID-19 hospitalisations and excess mortality. Further information can be found at the following link:
Data on hospital admissions with COVID-19 and deaths with COVID-19 on their death certificate is published on the COVID-19 dashboard. Further information can be found at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
UKHSA also publishes technical briefings on variants, which includes data on hospital admissions and mortality rates. This report shares the detailed variant surveillance analyses which contribute to the variant risk assessments and designation of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. This specialist technical briefing contains early data and analysis on emerging variants, and findings have a high level of uncertainty. Variant designations are made when variants are considered significant enough to report in routine surveillance and to facilitate variant-specific epidemiological studies. The designation means that UKHSA has confirmed a genomic case definition and will monitor the variant through regular surveillance analyses. The latest publication is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investigation-of-sars-cov-2-variants-technical-briefings
UKHSA also publishes COVID-19 updates on GOV.UK, which are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-variants-identified-in-the-uk-latest-update