New COVID-19 dashboard highlights gaps in data needed to address pandemic

A new public health data visualisation dashboard for COVID-19 has revealed significant issues regarding the quality, consistency and availability of reliable data needed to manage the Coronavirus pandemic and its impacts. Developed by researchers at UCL-led interdisciplinary research collaboration i-sense, the dashboard highlights significant gaps in both data quality and availability. Placed in the context of total number of estimated infections, the proportion of cases whose contacts are asked to isolate is small. Further, no routine data are collected on how well requests for 14-day isolation are adhered to. This makes it impossible to currently assess how effective NHS Test and Trace is in reducing COVID-19 transmission. Made available to the public today, the i-sense COVID Response Evaluation Dashboard (COVID RED) collates and presents data from the Office of National Statistics, Public Health England, and the NHS under five categories; Find, Test, Track, Isolate and Support for those asked to Isolate (FTTIS). It presents indicators of England's performance under each of these headings, and identifies areas where more data are needed.