Much is expected from the UK’s symptomatic Test and Trace system (sT&T), and all of us must play our part if it is to succeed in unlocking the many, while the infected, their households and close contacts are quarantined for up to 14 days.
As medical students and budding clinical academics, we have been following developments through the current coronavirus pandemic with interest. We are quite bewildered by the vast amount of data being shared via social media as well as more ‘traditional’ routes such as mainstream media and peer-reviewed journals. This surge in information (of highly variable quality) has been described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an “infodemic” and has necessitated a “myth busters” section on their website to address the spread of misinformation.
On 21 February 2020, the first person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus responsible for Covid-19 – was reported in Italy. After that, the number of people infected with Covid-19 increased rapidly, first in northern regions and then in all Italian territories.
Covid-19 is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the newly emerged virus, SARS-CoV-2. The virus rapidly spread and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. By 26 May 2020, worldwide confirmed cases reached 5,543,439 with 347,836 deaths.1
“How many people have died in recent days from Covid-19 in English hospitals?” A simple enough question, but the issue of delayed reporting means the answer is riddled with uncertainty.
