Social media users shared a document showing that there were only 50 cases of COVID-19 within one week in December 2020 in England and Wales.
However, the document does not show the total number of confirmed cases, but the number of suspected cases reported by clinicians this week.
Examples can be seen (here) and (here).
Plants shared online show a screenshot of a weekly Public Health England (PHE) report called Notifications of Infectious Diseases (NOIDs).
The original version of the document can be read (here).
The article contains the number of times a suspected infectious disease has been reported by a registered medical practitioner (RMP) in England and Wales for the week ending December 20th.
In this case, 50 suspected cases of COVID-19 were reported that week.
PHE uses NOIDS to detect possible outbreaks of diseases and epidemics as quickly as possible.
RMPs have a legal duty to notify the ‘proper officer’ at their local council or local health protection team (HPT) of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases, including COVID-19 (here).
“CLOSE reports are merely one way for clinicians to report suspected cases of COVID-19, which may be confirmed later,” a PHE spokesman told Reuters in an email. “They do not represent a total number of confirmed cases.”
Laboratory reports confirm or reject the primary diagnosis, and if it is found positive, this result is recorded centrally.
The national total for positive test results is published on the government’s COVID-19 dashboard (here).
VERDICT
Missing context. The document is legal, but shows the number of suspected COVID-19 cases reported by registered medical practitioners in England and Wales – not the total number of confirmed cases in the two countries.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.