The Wilkes Academy in Swindon has been closed after seeing a level of coronavirus infections more than 333 times as high as in the community around it.
The town’s overall 14-day rate stands at 92 infections per 100,000 – but the equivalent rate in the school is 30,481 per 100,000, a rate of over 30 percent. Pupils have been sent home and face to face classes suspended in response to 85 pupils and staff infected out of a population of around 270.
The government continues to deny that the infection spreads freely among children and from them to others They are wilfully ignoring the clear fact that keeping schools open is fuelling the second wave, while pointlessly closing hospitality venues. Hospitality represents around 4% of new infections in England – and school-age children more than a third.
Johnson’s lockdown delays in the spring caused tens of thousands of needless deaths. His latest refusal to institute a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown in England is expected to cost at least 1,000 lives a week from now through to April.
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85 out of 270 works out to be an infection rate of 31,481 per 100,000 Skwawky, 1,000 more than you state in this article.
Google says Swindon Borough population is 222,193, so 93 per 100,000 would be 207 cases.
It seems odd to me that 85 infected pupils and staff would result in only 122 further cases in the rest of the town, even if the academy were the only source of infection.
Swindon Advertiser 3 days ago quoted 41 per 100,000, not 92.
I must be getting my sums wrong.
The Kings College Tracker App, which is generally in agreement with the ONS statistics as they are later issued, and is based on reported symptoms, gives an estimated 270 cases per 100,00 for the area as of yesterday. To this you need to add 15-20% to allow for non-symptomatic cases. This is based on 3032 people reporting from the area, and results in an estimate of 595 active cases.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/data
A classic example of urban versus rural. Lockdown’ the towns & cities.