Status
This indicator is no longer updated
Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) monitoring tool
The Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) monitoring tool is designed to allow you to explore the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population's health and wellbeing. WICH presents a range of health and wellbeing metrics in interactive plots that can be broken down to show differences between groups - for example, you can explore grocery purchasing habits by region or social class. WICH is updated monthly and may include the addition of new metrics as they become available. A summary has been included for WICH and is available to read.
Application development: World Health Organisation (WHO) framework
The WICH tool is currently being redeveloped so that it continues to be a responsive resource which meets the needs of its users for the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, in response to an evaluation conducted in 2021, the indicator themes are being restructured so that they are consistent with a WHO pandemic framework. This framework consists of five main pathways through which the pandemic and related containment measures can have an impact on population health. The first two themes are included in the December 2022 update: Impact of COVID measures, Impact on healthcare. Please see the table below to find out which metrics have been grouped into these new themes.
Metrics
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) Health Intelligence teams have collated a range of metrics and grouped them into nine themes. Click the rows in the table below to expand groups and subgroups. The link column will take you to the relevant theme within the tool. You can search through metrics using the search bar on the right.
What's new?
Updated 15/12/2022.
A list of all indicators, including those that are new or updated in this release.
Revisions to metrics are recorded in the change log, available to download.
Other resources
On the 5 November 2020, we published a report which provided an in-depth commentary on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on grocery shopping behaviours during March to June 2020.
Feedback
We are interested in your feedback on the tool. If you have any comments or suggested changes, please email PHA-OHID@dhsc.gov.uk.
Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) summary, 15 December 2022
This Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) monitoring tool looks at the wider impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on population health. This report briefly highlights the main findings.
This resource is updated monthly, with new data for existing metrics and new metrics covering relevant themes added when data become available. In some cases, a metric is from a single time point data collection and therefore figures will not be updated. This will be continually reviewed and the resource will be updated as appropriate for relevance and timeliness.
Overview
This summary provides the main messages for some of the metrics updated in this release. It will cover the new diabetic eye screening metric and updated indicators on sexual health.
Main messages
New metrics: Diabetic eye screening
Eye screening is offered to people diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (excluding gestational diabetes) aged 12 years and older on an annual basis. Screening aims to detect damage to the back of the eye (retina) early so that it can be treated. If left undiagnosed or untreated diabetic retinopathy can cause blindness. Figure 1 shows the proportion of eligible people with diabetes offered routine digital screening (RDS) who attend a RDS event where images are captured (uptake). The data is measured across a rolling 12 month period. Between the rolling 12 month periods ending 30 June 2017 and 31 March 2020, approximately 82.3% of the eligible people with diabetes offered RDS had attended a successful screen (images captured enable a screening outcome to be determined).
Diabetic eye screening services paused screening between April and June 2020, but the full impact of the pause wasn’t seen until quarter 4 of the financial year 2020 to 2021. Prior to quarter 4 2020 to 2021 the data had included pre-pandemic data because it is measured over a rolling 12 months. Uptake has increased from quarter 1 2021 to 2022 onwards and reached 78.4% in quarter 4 2021 to 2022, which is above the acceptable threshold of 75%.
Figure 1: Proportion of those offered RDS who attend a RDS event where images are captured, April 2017 March 2022, England
Source: Screening key performance indicators, NHS England
Figure 2 shows the proportion of people with diabetes urgently referred to hospital eye services within 6 weeks of their screening or surveillance event. It is important for people with R3A retinopathy (active proliferative retinopathy) to be seen in hospital in a timely manner so that they can receive appropriate management.
The proportion was below the acceptable threshold of 80% prior to the pandemic. Between quarter 1 2017 to 2018 and quarter 3 2019 to 2020, the percentage of referrals seen on time ranged from 71.7% to 79.5%. Hospital eye services were most affected at the beginning of the pandemic when 64.2% of referrals were seen on time in quarter 4 2019 to 2020. In the most recent time period, quarter 4 2021 to 2022, 65.5% of urgent referrals were seen on time which is still below the acceptable threshold.
Figure 2: Proportion of people urgently referred to hospital eye services who attended within 6 weeks of their screening or surveillance event, April 2017 to March 2022, England
Source: Screening key performance indicators, NHS England
Sexual Health
Gonorrhoea
Figure 3 shows that gonorrhoea diagnoses from sexual health services with complete data in March, May and June 2022 exceeded those in the corresponding months in 2020 and 2019.
Figure 3: Number of gonorrhoea diagnoses in England, the bars compare data from sexual health services with complete data reported for January to December in 2019, 2020, 2021 and January to June 2022. The line represents the total number of diagnoses reported by all sexual health services (not only those with complete data over the time period) in each month in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Source: GUMCAD STI Surveillance System, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
The percentage of gonorrhoea diagnoses made using self-sampling kits provided by internet services in April to June 2022 is higher than that of the corresponding period in 2019 (Figure 4). This reflects the continued scale up of online self-sampling services to test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Figure 4: Percentage of gonorrhoea diagnoses made in sexual health services that were diagnosed via internet testing, in England
Source: GUMCAD STI Surveillance System, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Syphilis
Figure 5 shows that the number of syphilis diagnoses in sexual health services with complete data was higher in January to June 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
Figure 5: Number of syphilis diagnoses in England, the bars compare data from sexual health services with complete data. The line represents the total number of diagnoses reported by all sexual health services (not only those with complete data over the time period).
Source: GUMCAD STI Surveillance System, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Bacterial STI tests
Figure 6 shows that the monthly number of bacterial STI tests in 2022 has not returned to 2019 levels.
Figure 6: Number of bacterial STI tests (excluding chlamydia in under 25 year olds) in England by year, the bars compare data from sexual health services with complete data. The line represents the total number of diagnoses reported by all sexual health services (not only those with complete data over the time period).
Source: CTAD and GUMCAD STI Surveillance Systems, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Figure 7 shows that the percentage of bacterial STI tests conducted using self-sampling kits provided by internet services in April to June 2022 is higher than that of the corresponding period in 2019. This reflects the continued scale up of online self-sampling services to test for STIs.
Figure 7: Percentage of bacterial STI tests (excluding chlamydia in under 25 year olds) in England by year
Source: CTAD and GUMCAD STI Surveillance Systems, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
The proportion of bacterial STI tests among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) steadily increased between 2019 and 2022 (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Percentage of bacterial STI tests (excluding chlamydia in under 25 year olds) in England, by sexual orientation
MSW - Heterosexual men who have sex with women
WSM - Heterosexual and bisexual women who have sex with men
GBMSM - Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men
WSW - Lesbians and other women who have sex with women
Source: CTAD and GUMCAD STI Surveillance Systems, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Chlamydia
Figure 9 shows that the number of chlamydia tests in 15 to 24 year olds was lower in January to June 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
Figure 9: Number of chlamydia tests in 15 to 24 year olds at sexual health services
Sexual health services (SHSs) include both specialist (level 3) and non-specialist (level 1 & 2) SHSs. Specialist SHSs refers to genitourinary medicine (GUM) and integrated GUM/sexual and reproductive health (SRH)
Community based testing refers to young people’s services, online sexual health services, termination of pregnancy services, pharmacies, outreach and general practice, and other community-based settings.
Source: CTAD and GUMCAD STI Surveillance Systems, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Between January 2019 and February 2020, specialist sexual health services (SHS) were the most common provider of chlamydia tests in 15 to 24 year olds (Figure 10). In March 2020 that changed to internet services, which have remained the most common provider up to the most recent month of data in June 2022.
Figure 10: Percentage of chlamydia tests in 15 to 24 year olds in England, by testing service type
GP – general practice
Internet – Self-sampling kits provided by internet services
Non-specialist SHS – Level 1 and 2 sexual health services
Other – Other community-based settings
Pharmacy - Pharmacies
Specialist SHS - Specialist sexual health services refer to genitourinary medicine (GUM) and integrated GUM/sexual and reproductive health (SRH)
ToP - Termination of pregnancy centres
Source: CTAD and GUMCAD STI Surveillance Systems, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
WICH Summary for download
If you are interested in a summary from an earlier release, please email PHA-OHID@dhsc.gov.uk.
National lockdown restrictions in England from March 2020 to date
| Month | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| January | 6 Jan - third national lockdown | |
| February | 15 Feb - hotel quarantine for travellers arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries | |
| March | 20 Mar - schools close, all cafes, pubs and restaurants close except for take-away 23 Mar - first national lockdown begins 'stay at home' |
8 Mar - schools, colleges and practical university courses open 29 Mar outdoor gatherings of either 6 people or 2 households allowed. Outdoor sports facilities reopen. Stay at home rule ends |
| April | 12 Apr - non-essential retail, personal care premises (e.g. hairdressers), public buildings, gyms and outdoor hospitality reopen | |
| May | 13 May - outdoor exervise with one other houeshold allowed | 17 May - outdoor gatherings of up to 30 people allowed. Indoor rule of 6 or 2 households applies (social distancing to remain). Indoor locations such as cinemas, play centres and hotels to reopen |
| June | 1 Jun - fatherings of up to 6 people outdoors and phased reopening of schools 15 Jun - non-essential retail and secondary schools reopen 23 Jun - 2m social distancing rule relaxed |
21 Jun - wedding guests no longer limited to 30, care home residents do not necessarily have to self-isolate if they go on a trip out of the home, children can go on overnight trips in groups of 30, large events pilots continue. Those in areas with high levels of Delta variant advised to meet outside, keep 2m apart from those you don't live or bubble with, minimise travel in/out of the area |
| July | 4 Jul - pubs, restauraunts, hotels and hairdressers open. Two households can meet indoors and social distancing relaxed to at least one metre | 19 Jul - all legal limits on social contact removed |
| August | 14 Aug - indoor activities such as theatres, bowling alleys and soft play, resume | |
| September | 14 Sep - indoor and outdoor social gatherings of more than 6 banned 22 Sep - return to working from home and hospitality curfew of 10pm |
|
| October | 14 Oct - 3 tier system of restrictions introduced | |
| November | 5 Nov - second national lockdown | |
| December | 2 Dec - second lockdown ends, return to 3 tier system 21 Dec - tier 4 alert introduced (stay at home) 26 Dec - more areas enter tier 4 |
How to use this Tool
Use the tabs at the top of the screen to move between the different metric groups.
Each tab provides a visualisation of the selected metric by different breakdowns and the trends over time for the metrics available.
- Select the metric to display in the ‘Indicator’ drop down. The dashboard will populate with the selected data.
- Select the breakdown you would like to display from the ‘Breakdown’ drop down.
- Navigate between viewing charts, data tables and metadata using the tabs in each theme.
- To see a single variable on a chart click on the variable name in the legend.
- View data from previous releases using the 'Release Date' drop down.
Accessibility statement for Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) monitoring tool
This accessibility statement applies to https://analytics.phe.gov.uk/apps/covid-19-indirect-effects/
This website is run by Public Health England. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
• The graphs and charts may not be usable if you rely on the keyboard, struggle with colors, or use a screenreader. The data tables associated with each should be more usable.
• Not all the text will be available when you zoom in.
• Some text and graphics do not have sufficient contrast.
• You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader, and most pages are missing landmarks.
• Some page updates (when searching or filtering) do not announce the updates to screenreaders.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email PHA-OHID@dhsc.gov.uk.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email PHA-OHID@dhsc.gov.uk.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Public Health England is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Navigation
• Graph controls could not be accessed with a keyboard alone
• A feature to skip over the navigation and filters to go directly to the main content was not provided
• It is not possible to dismiss content on the navigation bar that appears on-hover with keyboard only
Images
• A number of icons and images were missing alternative text
Zoom
• Content was lost when the page is zoomed in up to 400% and scrolling occurred in both directions
Colours
• The colour contrast of text and the graph controls was insufficient
Structure
• ARIA landmarks such as main and banner were missing
• The language of the page had not been set
• The current page state is visually communicated but not programmatically communicated
• Important changes in content that occur dynamically are not announced to screen reader users
• Lists were not used to group contents in some areas
• HTML was not nested according to the specification
Graphs
• The graphs require colour vision to interpret, failing Use of Color
• Icons used in the graphs, and some colour combinations fail Non-Text Contrast
• The keyboard controls are not Keyboard accessible
• The graphs do not have alt-text, failing Non-Text Content
• The text within the graphs are not structured, failing Info and Relationships
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Most of the issues above will be reviewed with the development team and be resolved within 6 months.
The graphs are created using a library, and it has not been possible to find an accessible alternative. The data tables associated with each graph will be updated to ensure they include the same information as the graph.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2021. It was last reviewed on 23rd September.
This website was last tested on 22nd September 2021. The test was carried out by Nomensa. A selection of 10 pages across the site were selected for testing, covering the main templates and types of content (graphs) that are available.
Grocery purchasing and food usage
Social determinants of health
Behavioural risk factors
Impact on healthcare
Status
This indicator is active
This indicator is no longer updated
Update status not found
Interpretation notes
Air quality
Status
This indicator is no longer updated
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Life expectancy
Mortality
Impact of COVID measures
Status
This indicator is active
This indicator is no longer updated
Update status not found
Interpretation notes
COVID-19 Health Inequalities Monitoring for England (CHIME)
The COVID-19 Health Inequalities Monitoring for England (CHIME) tool brings together data relating to the direct impacts of COVID-19, such as on mortality rates and hospital admissions.
By presenting inequality breakdowns, including by age, sex, ethnic group, level of deprivation and region, the tool provides a single point of access to:
- show how inequalities have changed during the course of the pandemic and what the current cumulative picture is
- bring together data in one tool to enable users to access and utilise the intelligence more easily
- provide indicators with a consistent methodology across different datasets to facilitate understanding
- support users to identify and address inequalities within their areas and identify priority areas for recovery