not to mention cases!
21 May: UK Telegraph: Tens of thousands of coronavirus tests have been double-counted, officials admit
Two samples taken from the same patient are being recorded as two separate tests in the Government’s official figures
By Mason Boycott-Owen and Paul Nuki
Tens of thousands of Covid-19 tests have been double-counted in the Government’s official tally, public health officials have admitted.
Diagnostic tests which involve taking saliva and nasal samples from the same patient are being counted as two tests, not one.
The Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England each confirmed the double-counting.
This inflates the daily reported diagnostic test numbers by over 20 per cent, with that proportion being much higher earlier on in the crisis before home test kits were added to the daily totals.
Almost 350,000 more tests have been reported in Government data than people tested since the start of the pandemic...
It is not the first time the Government has been caught massaging the testing data. It was accused last month of including thousands of home tests which had been posted but not completed in a bid to reach its target of 100,000 tests...
Global health experts said the Government should stop fixating on its arbitrary targets and instead focus on making testing work to drive down Covid-19 infections in the UK...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/tens-thousands-coronavirus-tests-have-double-counted-officials/
experts or idiots?
Experts at manipulation, for sure.