Cloud
Mlem
IMHO, best not to place all your faith in one set of figures or one voice etc. Hence despite the temptation to shut off all news, social media, forums etc and just listen to Dr John Campbell every day I still like to keep an eye on what everyone else is saying. Just listening to the government is fine, just don't be surprised if it gets a bit confusing with the constant u-turns and "you shouldn't wear a mask, okay maybe you should wear a mask, but don't go to work, no wait please do go to work, no hang on maybe don't go to work" etc. Seems to me they bumble around a bit like you tend to hope good leaders don't do.
The actual government reported figures have their problems like weekend reporting delays, the fact that early on only people who were dying of it were tested so the figures were roughly 100-200k per day, etc. So you put it into additional context like the ONS random sampling and the prediction model of the Kings College ZOE study. Neither of those should be taken as gospel on their own either (ONS relies on inexperienced people trying to shove swabs down their throats at home without touching their tongue or teeth; ZOE app is based on symptom reporting and largely downloaded by people who are intensely interested in / nervous about the symptoms and would tend to lean hypochondriac, so tends to be the most pessimistic)
My feeling from the combination is the growth is slowing or possibly flattening out at what the government reports as around 6000 cases per day, 30 or so deaths per day but not really going down much so may become the "new normal" over winter. But always keeping an eye on those official daily figures as sometimes you get an unexpected "oh shit it just almost doubled in a day".
