Covid: The nine charts that show how the pandemic is progressing in the UK

The coronavirus pandemic is slowing across the UK but excess deaths are still rising, scientific advisers outlined at a Covid briefing.

A series of graphs presented by Public Health England’s Dr Susan Hopkins, Deputy chief scientific adviser Professor Dame Angela McLean and NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis showed the state of the pandemic across the UK.

Most of the information featured data up until early November, so the effects of England's lockdown had yet to be factored in, which came into force on November 5.

Here are some of the slides shown at the briefing.


The R number is going down but is still above 1

The R number is now between 1 and 1.2 in the UK, down from the 1.6 it reached in October.

The number is still critically above the all important 1 which means the virus is still growing in circulation among the population.

Dame McLean said: "The best way to think about that is that if we had 10 infectious people on average, between them, they would infect 12 other new people.”


The number of people catching Covid-19 in England is still high but is levelling off

Using data by the Office of National Statistics the graph shows roughly one in 85 people in England have Covid-19, up from one in 2,200 in August.

The estimate was created using random door to door tests with people and extrapolating the results to the wider population.


The number of people with Covid in hospitals is still rising

NHS national medical director Professor Powis explained the number of people in hospital was still rising sharply - there have been 5,000 more inpatients since the end of October.

The increase in admissions was a key reason why the government decided to put England back into lockdown last month.

Because of the lag time between infection and hospital treatment, the number of admissions is expected to continue to rise despite England being under lockdown.


Hospital admissions are falling in the North West

The latest data shows the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus is falling in some of the hardest hit areas of the second wave.

Hospital admissions have been falling in the North East and Yorkshire, the North West and the Midlands.

Most of the hardest hit areas were already under Tier 3 measures at the start of England's second national lockdown.

Dame McLean has suggested the evidence indicates that Tier 3 measures had a positive effect.

She told the data briefing: “When I look at the North West and the North East, when I look at what’s happened with the ONS surveys there, I see interventions that have worked, I see epidemics that are flattening. There is some good news there.”


Percentage of people testing Covid positive in England is rising

The graph shows the number of people testing positive across England is still rising, but it has levelled off in the harder hit areas.

Crucially the data only shows up to November 3, the day after England went into lockdown, so the effects of the new measures are yet to be understood.


Deaths are still rising

The seven day rolling average of the number of people dying across the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 has been rising sharply in recent weeks.

There were 598 new deaths from coronavirus in the UK announced on Tuesday, the highest number since April 26.

There have now been a total of 52,745 deaths across the four nations.


Excess deaths are rising again

The graph shows that during the height of the pandemic in March and April the number of people dying every day in the UK was far higher than the five-year average.

After the peak of the pandemic passed it went down to normal levels by June.

The number has again been rising and went above the average again in October.

The trend is expected to continue for the next few weeks.


Most people are following the rules

The slide shows the results of a survey carried out by the Office of National Statistics which found most of the population have adhered to the coronavirus guidelines.

It found 98% of people had taken up wearing masks outdoors with record numbers working from home.


Less trips are being made but more people are visiting parks

Using data from Google the graph shows there has been a significant reduction in the time spent in transit, shopping and at work, as has been recommended by the government.

Instead, somewhat unsurprisingly, people have been spending more time at home and visiting parks