The government is holding out against calls to stop publishing data on daily Covid-19 infections after criticism that it fuelled a “fear factor.”
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith complained the figures lead to “irrational” decision-making by the public.
“It feeds the whole fear factor,” he told the Daily Mail and called for Downing Street to “stop it now”.
Responding to his calls on Wednesday, Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that daily official data on infections and hospitalisations will stop being issued “in due course”.
The business minister told Sky News that there would be a “substantial data set to share” for as long as testing and monitoring was necessary, but not necessarily shared with the public.”
However, government sources made it clear that daily publication is unlikely to change until next year.
For now, officials will continue to release figures for daily case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths.
Calls to ditch the daily death count were previously made last August following an investigation into Public Health England’s method of counting the toll, The Telegraph reported.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock ordered the investigation after it emerged officials were “exaggerating” virus deaths, the newspaper said.
