Check procedure for cv in UK .

Chrisdee wrote:It's not the number of deaths that count it's the percentage of the population that counts. They have more people dying per million than the USA, there are only 6 major European Nations that have a higher percentage per population. What about all the young children and young people that have got underlying problems, they've got more of a chance of catching it if more people go out because they want to.

I think an even worse statistic, Chrisdee, is the number of deaths as a percentage of the number of cases:


Spain: Infected 250,561 / Deaths 25,613 10.2%
UK: Infected 190,584 / Deaths 28,734 15.1%

I'm asking myself why the UK, with 60,000 less cases than Spain, has a higher death rate......

Maybe its because the UK include the deaths in care homes and normally they are older and of course the behaviour of the UK people not taking it seriously? I really don't know, only guessing

Because Spain has carried out far more tests for the population than UK has. Spain tested all those, even those at home and weren't admitted to hospital, whilst UK at the beginning only tested those with heavy symptoms and were admitted to hospital.

Spain has carried out over 41,000 tests per million population while UK has only tested just over 19,000 per million of population.

UK is catching up because just 10 days ago the number tested per million wasn't even 10,000. The more tests carried out, the higher the infection rate even if it doesn't mean a rise in serious cases.

The best news of all for Spain is that the number of serious and critical cases has reduced over the last 5 days from almost 8,000 to just over 2,000. And Spain has the highest number of recovered cases in the whole of Europe (something UK doesn't publish).

Thankfully the number of new cases and the number of deaths is coming down in both countries albeit with the rise (probably due to the difficulty in registering deaths at a weekend) which can only be good news.
Valencia Region is on course to move to Phase 1 next Monday and the Regional Health Minister has presented the figures to make sure it does. Madrid and Catalonia may have to stay in Phase 0 next week whilst others could actually go to Phase 1 earlier.

Vega Baja area is doing particularly well with just one new case in the last 48 hours and no deaths (that doesn't include today as no figures have yet been announced). Valencia Region had no deaths in the 48 hours up to today but has now recorded another 10 deaths after testing of people who died in residential homes. One of the criteria for moving to Phase 1 is that the health service is not overwhelmed and will be able to cope and Ana Barcelo (the regional health minister for Valencia) has said that this is so with a surplus of ICU places available.

Thank you

My wife & I had the test, we thought it was very organised & the staff were polite & helpful, very happy with the whole procedure

Spain has started a programme of testing 36,000 families to see if the virus was prevalent. Just watch the number of positive cases rise when this is done.
But not in Galicia, apparently, Hundreds of families have refused to take the tests because they thought it was a scam when they were asked to provide details of how many living in the house, how many bedrooms, do they have a garden and so on.

The local newspapers have printed articles saying this is not a scam, please cooperate.

Talking of which, has anyone been approached to take part in this testing? 36,000 families must include some of us expats. Probably like all the polls you get which show how people will vote or what demograph they are in. In my 70 years plus I've never once been approached to take part.

It’s impossible to compare numbers because there are so many variables. Even the scientists are arguing about how to count & compare.

I personally believe it is unavoidable to ignore the fact that “density of population” has a huge impact on the spread of the virus - look at Madrid, London etc - but so does age demographic, ethnicity, underlying conditions, areas of deprivation, some scientists are saying climate, air quality etc etc.

The U.K. has a very dense population when you look at “people per sq kilometre” unlike Spain & France but ....................

It is also clear that Belgium has had a terrible time when looking at the deaths per million of population but is that because it is a densely populated country because if that were the only reason why have South Korea and Japan done so much better?

In Europe you could say with some certainty that Italy, Spain, France, UK and Belgium are similar in their outcomes but have not done as well as Germany, Eastern Europe ???

But, Germany made it clear at the outset they were not recording everyone who had Coronavirus at the point of death - just those who definitely died because of the virus!

So I have a 71 year old brother who is in the final stages (5th year) of motor neurone disease - horrible horrible disease - he actually says “bring it on” when discussing the virus as he knows it would be a blessing - but if he caught it in the U.K. - his death certificate would say “Coronavirus” but as he would say “don’t be stupid motor neurone killed me” - so would Germany be right to record it as Motor Neurone - probably.

So comparisons are not easy or reliable.............

It is indeed impossible to compare rates in different countries, but people like to do it in order to try to score (normally political) points.

Has anyone considered that the majority of residents in a country like Spain may well be healthier than those in the UK to begin with?

Even population densities aren't really useful. Take Mongolia...a country with a population of just over 3 million people. Population density of just 2 people per square kilometre.
However...around half of the population live in the capital city - Ulaanbaatar...and there, the population density is 337 people per square km!

Worldometer - which is quite often used when looking at Covid-19 stats - records the density as 2 people per square km.