Oh, but you can - you just have to put in your postcode into one of those online search tools right?
Wrong.
Those only show Pillar 1 data. ‘Pillar 1’ is swab testing in hospitals. ‘Pillar 2’ is testing among the wider population. It’s where 75% of cases are.
The overall figure for new cases published each day is accurate. But it’s almost impossible to find out where they are at a local and regional level.
So using one of those tools, you could have been assured that your city hasn’t seen any new cases for weeks, when that’s patently false.
Nationally, your chance of getting coronavirus might be 1:1250. But locally, it could be 1:250, and you would have no way of knowing. Or modifying your behaviour accordingly.
In the FT today:
www.ft.com/content/301c847c-a317-4950-a75b-8e66933d423a