Can I ask a question about the 'recovered' figures

[TravellingSpoon]

They don't seem to have gone up at all for days in the official figures, so I am wondering if there is an 'official' recovered stage that people need to meet that isnt being done, for example a negative test after a positive one?

Does anyone know and can explain it to me.

Place marking as I wondered the same

People stay in ICU for weeks and then tend to die in the end anyway

The only people who are being tested are those who are being admitted and kept in hospital. To get to that stage you have to be pretty poorly and you have less of a chance of recovery.

Italian medics are reporting that they have patients on ventilation that they now can't get off, so they may not be worsening, but they're not recovering either.

The people who have recovered haven't been identified as having had it in the first place because they've not needed to seek medical help or been tested. This is why you can't rely on the numbers.

I believe in Italy you need to have 2 negative tests to be declared recovered, I imagine it's similar in the UK. One of the Diamond Princess passengers kept getting a negative then a new positive, despite feeling better in himself, so I think it can take a while.