A person holding a Covid 19 lateral flow test (Danny Lawson/PA)
(Picture: PA Archive)The British Government will stop publishing Covid modelling in the new year, it has been announced.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) officials say it is "no longer necessary" to issue updates on the R rate or on modelling projecting death and hospitalisation numbers - a move understood to be part of the Government’s normalisation of Covid in society.
Modelling and its role in Government decisions, especially the introduction of lockdowns and other restrictions, will likely feature in the Covid inquiry, led by Baroness Hallett, which resumes in February.
The UKHSA Epidemiology Modelling Review Group (EMRG) said that the next publication of its consensus statement on Covid-19 on January 6 “will be the last”.
It said Covid-19 incidence data will continue to be accessible from the Office for National Statistics infection survey.
Dr Watkins, chairman of the EMRG, said: “During the pandemic, the R value and growth rate served as a useful and simple indicator to inform public health action and Government decisions.
“Now that vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase where we are living with Covid-19, with surveillance scaled down but still closely monitored through a number of different indicators, the publication of this specific data is no longer necessary.
“We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in a similar way to how we monitor a number of other common illnesses and diseases.
“All data publications are kept under constant review and this modelling data can be reintroduced promptly if needed, for example, if a new variant of concern was to be identified.”
