Health chiefs will only update UK-wide figures twice a week after pressure to cancel updates

The UK daily Covid statistics were removed today as the country made progress in the pandemic.

The UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) now only publishes updates for the entire UK twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.

It’s following pressure from Conservative MPs and experts who have warned that case numbers are becoming increasingly unreliable after free Covid tests were stopped for most Brits. They demanded the deletion of daily data as the final piece of their “living with Covid” strategy.

UKHSA will continue to publish daily data for the UK, but the UK headline numbers used to remind the public during the pandemic will suffer.

This is because the UK has registered 26,280 new cases of Covid-19 in the last three days today, equivalent to 212 deaths per day, which averages 8,700 and about 70 per day.

Ministers stopped publishing data for the weekend after “Friday,” so Monday’s government dashboard update now includes data for Saturday and Sunday.

The government relies on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly infection survey, which uses random swabs to find out the true trajectory of the virus. It also dropped last week.

Meanwhile, the latest data from the Covid hospital shows that there were 992 hospitalizations due to the virus on May 3, about one-fifth less than the previous week.

Daily hospital admissions fell for four consecutive weeks, despite NHS leaders calling for the return of outdoor masks and mixes in early April.

The move to shrink the UK numbers was suggested by Public Health Scotland, where the national dashboard of Covid is only updated on Monday and Thursday. It will be moved to weekly updates from June.

In contrast, UKHSA confirmed that Covid statistics have changed in the UK, with UK data only available on Monday and Thursday.

Clare Griffiths, head of the UK’s Covid board, said: “As we move forward with the pandemic, changes to reports in four countries mean that Covid statistics are updated at different dates and times.

“When looking at reported Covid data, changes in reporting schedules need to be taken into account and therefore daily comparisons can be misleading.”

This adds to the breakdown of the daily figures as Wales now only releases vaccine data on Monday, meaning that updated vaccine data is only available weekly across the UK.

It comes after the Irish Department of Health confirmed last month that it will “no longer publish” daily Covid data. Instead, numbers of outbreaks will be “regularly updated” on the country’s Covid dashboard.

The country’s health chiefs said they will continue to monitor all information regarding the epidemiology of the virus, including the number of cases, local outbreaks and trends, as well as the emergence and detection of new variants in Ireland and abroad.

But UK health chiefs have insisted there are “no plans at this time” to eliminate the daily data. Data for the UK continues to be published daily for each topic: tests, cases, healthcare, vaccinations and deaths.

It comes when Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer promises to stop if he is fined by the police for the Beergate scandal.

Police announced that they were investigating a drunken curry case involving several Labor workers, including Sir Keir and party vice-president Angela Rayner, during the country’s quarantine in April last year.

He insisted it was “absolutely clear” that no rules were being violated, and said he believed in “honor and integrity” – he said he was “very different” from Boris Johnson.

Sir Keir said he had self-isolated six times and followed the rules while his father-in-law was sick, suggesting that he truly did not believe even his opponents would be breaking the rules at Durham.

“If the police decide to give me an NFP, of course I will do the right thing and resign,” he said, refusing to say what he would do if police scolded him publicly, despite insistence by journalists.

Angela Rayner echoed Sir’s stance, saying, “If I had been fined, I would have done the right thing and resigned.”

The speech, which raises the odds that Labour will be left without one of its top two politicians, comes after a day of heightened tension as Sir Keir cancels a think tank event he is said to be angry and ignores journalists’ questions. He left his home in London this morning.

Durham police agree with prominent figures urging him to come forward, promising to step down if they find out he’s breaking Covid rules.

The strategy is risky, but while the police can leave Sir Keir in a strong position if he doesn’t hand out punishment, the allies suspect he’ll have to leave anyway if he’s fined.

“There is a clear logic,” one of Sir Keir’s supporters told the Times.

“If Johnson removed it, he would have something to say to him at the shipping desk (in the House of Commons).”

The Labor leader’s efforts to contain the feud took another hit today, with allegations that people were “bitches” at the Durham meeting last year.

Meanwhile, anger threatens to spread further as Sir Keir’s office is accused of sending invitations to around 40 Labor advisers to a Christmas party in December 2020, when London is subject to level 2 restrictions.

The party was not canceled until the capital was upgraded to level 3.

In response to recent accusations reported by Politico, Labor insisted that the meeting be allowed according to the rules, as the meeting must be held in an open place and with tables for a maximum of six people.

However, the party had previously criticized the government for performing similar functions.

MailOnline is aware that the celebratory party will be held in a West London loft with “alcoholic cheese fondue, hot toddies and warmers”.

The indoor outdoor space was described as “a winter forest against a backdrop of snow-covered hills” and included “a Bavarian-style room with its own bar and eight cozy Moët & Chandon winter cottages with cozy blankets”.