Confusion over the number of cases of coronavirus on the Isle of Wight has puzzled residents since yesterday, when local NHS bosses confirmed a rise in positive test.
Chief executive of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Maggie Oldham, said that the number of cases of coronavirus has increased from 3 on Tuesday to 8 on Wednesday — more than doubling the figure.
However, when the official Public Health England dashboard was updated later in the day, the increase of figures told to the Island was not showing — the number of cases stoic at 3.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has confirmed the number of cases has indeed risen to 8 and said the nationally held figures were taking some time to update.
A spokesperson from the trust said announcing the increase locally broke the protocol of announcing figures — and said it will revert back to that way from now on — but it was the right thing to do under the particular circumstances.
A spokesperson for Public Health England said the online dashboard runs behind — being updated as of 09:00 that day. However, the increase of cases was noted before 09:00 and should have been updated in the data, as per the wording of the dashboard.
It is not the first time, however, the online dashboard has confused Island residents — a week ago the number of cases on the Island dropped from 2 to 1 and then back up again.
Public Health England said that was due to a maladministration of the data — a person was registered to the hospital and not their home address, so was listed under the Isle of Wight as a local authority area.
Revert back ?
What the f is going on….just tell us the truth
I suppose an 8 does look like a 3. Did a doctor write the number? Their highly suspect handwriting might be the cause.
What a strange comment
I know the number of reported cases is important but it would be nice to know how many are now back to full health.
I would also like to thank all the people that are helping to look after everyone in these exceptional times please keep safe all of you.
The way the situation is going I will not be surpised if the Government put a ” D ” notice on reported cases .
What is a “D” notice please Terry?
As this only started with ONE Chinese person eating a bat or similar, then even 8 people with this, considering ‘one’ spread such through the entire planet, is more than worrying.
Let’s not treat this lightly. Stay as safe as you can, but I fear even if we avoid such, we ‘have’ to come out of hiding someone, so it is ‘better’ to get it early whilst their is available treatment, or wait until beds are unavailable?
18m Plus is a long time to wait for a ‘hoped’ for vaccine, can’t avoid life that long.
We are all in the same situation, but un fortunately we don’t know the true numbers as only people admitted to hospital are being tested. this is why I cannot believe that major island manufacturers are allowed to remain open as essential.
If you go on the gov.uk website it says how many people in the UK have recovered. Currently it is far outweighed by deaths unfortunately but hopefully that will change.
Its the usual Government cover up.
You are diagnosed over the phone without any testing and a Doctor phones you daily to see how you are doing hence the official figures stay the same. If you are unfortunate to go into hospital you will be tested and become a statistic and the cases will rise. How many people on the island actually have the virus is anybodies guess I know of at least 3 people that have been diagnosed over the phone and monitored from home.
this is the whole problem, have they had it or not. if yes then apparently they’re immune, if not they are back out in the community waiting to contract it and spread it around. Although they should be social distancing, do we go into complete isolation from our families etc .every time one of us gets a symptom, and if so, where do we go? Parkdean maybe?
Do not trust the government. Their response to this virus has been wholly inadequate. The “lockdown” is a farce and nothing more than a slogan. Their measures to support workers have been too little too late, forcing too many people to travel to non essential jobs, potentially spreading the virus.
We don’t have enough police officers to enforce any of these measures and The NHS and it’s amazing staff is woefully underfunded and ill equipped to deal with such a crisis. Army field hospitals and possibly troops on the streets coming soon.
They clearly value the economy more than people’s health and wellbeing and now they’ve been caught fudging the figures.
They are an absolute disgrace.
Are you a Russian in disguise, there doing the best they can in difficult circumstances easy to sit at home and criticise from your armchair
No Brian, I’m not Russian. I’m British and in Britain we are allowed to criticize the government if we think they are doing a bad job, without fear of retribution (unlike the people of Russia, ironically).
Rather than make ad hominem comments, if you would like to address any of the points I raised and convince me that the government haven’t acted in a negligent manner, I would be happy to discuss them with you.