West Sussex Coronavirus (COVID-19) local summary

West Sussex County Council Public Health Department monitors COVID-19 related information on a daily basis, and a summary pack is published as a powerpoint slide deck which can be found on the top right of this webpage. Links are provided to public data sources available.

Although this webpage has been made by a member of staff in the Public Health and Social Research Unit to support their work, it is not a West Sussex County Council website.

This data analysis is intended to supplement the published data pack by allowing users to explore more detail in the charts. For example, you can find out the number of cases in an area on a particular day by hovering over one of the bars or points on the blue chart below. This website is updated more frequently than the powerpoint file on the West Sussex County Council website, in order to show the very latest data available so note that the figures may be different.

Local authorities currently have access to some information that is not in the public domain, which may be due to small numbers or due to data being provisional.

The landscape of available data is also changing all the time, and we hope to be able to publish as much as possible.

For more information please contact publichealth@westsussex.gov.uk

Daily case changes and initial peaks

The figure below shows the daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 over time by area (showing West Sussex by default), but you can change this to any lower tier area within the county as well as the South East region and England for comparison. The black line represents the rolling average number of new cases confirmed in the previous seven days.

Case results are generally published in the afternoon and represent cases reported up to 9am of the reporting day. However, cases are assigned to the date on which the specimen was taken rather than when it was reported. It would be very unlikely that a specimen would be taken on the day of reporting with results returned by 9am. It can take as many as four days for results to be reported (e.g. specimens taken on 1st August may not be reported until the 5th). As such, we consider the last four days as incomplete as more cases may be added to the totals for these days.

The figure includes key dates when changes to testing capacity and eligibility were announced. These are adapted from The Health Foundation Covid-19 Policy Tracker.

Data source: https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk

The next set of figures shows a quick glance of the lower tier local authorities within West Sussex. The black lines (shown on the actual numbers figures only) on each figure represent the rolling average number of new cases confirmed in the previous seven days.

You can toggle between looking at actual case numbers and rates of confirmed cases per 100,000 population.

Data source: https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk

The next visualisation shows another way to explore confirmed cases over time and across areas quickly as a heatmap with a single tile for each day colour coded by the number of new cases (the darker red tiles denoting more cases). You can toggle between viewing the coloured tiles as actual confirmed cases or as confirmed cases per 100,000 population.

Data source: https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk

This section shows COVID-19 cases and growth rates for upper tier (and lower tier further down the page) local authority areas in England.

The figure shows every upper tier local authority in England with the most recent 7-day incidence rate per 100,000 population along the x axis (from left to right) and the percentage change in cases from the previous 7 days on the y ais (from bottom to top). You can use the slider to look at previous days going back to the start of September 2020.

This figure uses a rate per 100,000 to standardise populations across areas (because some areas are much bigger or more densely populated than others) and using a rolling 7-day period helps to smooth out any large variation in daily cases due to operational issues such as test processing at weekends. This is useful for seeing the current picture (compared to other areas) and how the cases have changed over the recent past and if they are decreasing or increasing.

The three Sussex Upper Tier and Unitary Local Authorities are highlighted (see the key to the right) and England is highlighted in black. Hover over a dot to find out more.

Use the slider to choose a date (the most recent complete date is shown by default on the right)

The figure below shows broadly the same information as above but as a map, which you can zoom into using the mouse or pointer.

The initial map shows the rolling 7-day incidence rate (up to the most recent date for which we believe we have complete data). You can change the map using the buttons on the top right to show the rolling 7-day total compared to the previous period as a percentage increase or decrease. Finally, you can look at the overall confirmed cases rate so far. It is important to consider each of these measures together; what are the cases now, what were the cases last week, how many cases have there been so far.

Data source: https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk

Interpreting the percentage change value is actually easier if an area has at least some cases each week rather than having periods with no new cases. For example, an area with zero cases one week and two cases the next is perhaps better than having one case in one week and two in the next, yet the percentage increase is impossible to show from a starting value of zero. Equally, no change can mean two weeks of no new cases, or one case each week or 10.

This map shows the same as above but for Lower Tier Local Authority level.

Data source: https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk

This section shows maps of lower tier local authority areas in England to show differences in "lockdown laws" across the country. The information contained here has been compiled by the House of Commons Library, and a briefing is available here. The map is a simplification of finer detail of rules in local areas and a link to the UK government web pages for each area (if local rules apply) can be found by clicking on an area of the map.

The map covers restrictions outlined by the UK government for England. Local authorities also have statutory powers to issue "directions" which impose prohibitions or restrictions on premises, events and public spaces.

Information provided by the House of Commons Library Coronavirus Restrictions Tool (available: https://visual.parliament.uk/research/visualisations/coronavirus-restrictions-map/'). Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

The NHS Pathways dataset outlining the number of triages made to NHS 111 or 999 for COVID-19 symptoms has been suggested as a potential early warning indicator of an increase in potential cases, although it is not based on any outcomes of tests for COVID-19.

There are a few caveats to be aware of when using this information. The data are not counts of people but rather assessments, and people with symptoms might not use this or might use it multiple times over the course of their symptoms (and maybe not at the start of their symptoms). People were encouraged initially NOT to call NHS 111 to report COVID-19 symptoms unless they were worried but instead were asked to complete an NHS 111 online triage assessment. Moreover, the criteria for inclusion on this pathway changed over time, particularly in the early weeks of the pandemic.

However, this data may give some indication of the symptom reporting locally and a view of service contacts and an early view of people concerned about their symptoms.

Data source: NHS Digital

The Office for National Statistics publishes weekly data at lower tier local authority for the number of deaths occurring in each week in the 2020 calendar year. From 31 March 2020 these figures also show the number of deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19), based on any mention of COVID-19 on the death certificate. These are aggregated to upper tier local authority for this analysis.

Data source: Office for National Statistics

Data source: Office for National Statistics