Daily data:

Cases 21,691 (23,511 last Tuesday)
Deaths 138 (131)
Patients admitted 731 (854 on the 23rd)
Patients in hospital 6,099 (5,918 on the 26th)
Patients in ventilation beds 895 (820 on the 26th)
People vaccinated up to and including 02 August 2021:
First dose: 46,898,525
Second dose: 38,590,332

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now down 20.5% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is up 12.9%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 77.4 today. Daily data may be delayed from tomorrow onwards as it is family holiday time for me :)

What an utter mockery this is making of the doom predicted by scientists before July 19. I think it was the day before where 1200 scientists signed a letter begging Boris to hold back.

Hopefully some other countries follow now. They all seem to see the quick rise of cases under Delta and bring back restrictions before letting it peak.

That's the third day that new hospital admissions have been lower than the previous week's figure. It looks like it's lagging the case numbers by something over a week. Hopefully we'll start to see drops in the patients in hospital number in the next few days.

while i do not entirely disagree, i view this in the lens of science--we have something that is new, and after a series of policy failures the reaction has been a bit heavy (travel restrictions for one) but with the projections, i mean it is all just a best guess based on what is known at the time...which is hard to do when everything that evolves is new. i mean thats science!

so i do bristle when people mock prior predictions (not saying you specifically) because it could have been a lot worse and people would say the same thing.

you cant make 100% accurate decisions on something that is unknown.

Well no-one forced them to make statements like this, so if they get hoist by their own petard, that's their issue:

Hundreds of doctors and scientists attack Boris Johnson over ‘criminal’ plan for ‘Freedom Day’

More than 1,200 leading doctors and scientists have signed a letter condemning Boris Johnson’s decision to forge ahead with so-called Freedom Day on 19 July, describing it as “unscientific and unethical”.

Last week, a coalition of medical experts published a missive in medical journal The Lancet, branding the government’s plans “dangerous and premature”.

It described Mr Johnson’s strategy as “herd immunity by mass infection” and said that opening the country should be delayed until “everyone, including adolescents, have been offered vaccination and uptake is high”.

The letter has now been signed by 1,246 doctors and scientists from all over the world.

Former chief scientific adviser and chair of Independent Sage, Sir David King, threw his support behind the letter and described the government’s strategy as “completely wrong”.

He told the Daily Express: “It is unbelievable that the UK government should embark on a herd immunity strategy that will see thousands of unnecessary deaths and severe long-term illness when so much progress has been made with the vaccination programme.

“As we have said for over a year this strategy is completely wrong and does not reflect the best scientific or medical advice.”

I would agree if it were being directed at those who merely presented models and objective analysis of them, and I include SAGE as a group who did that.

However, there have been plenty of "celebrity" scientists appearing over the last year and have firmly inserted themselves in the political world. Over the last two months they haven't hesitated from making direct political attacks on the government using completely over dramatic language about what would follow relaxation and claiming it utterly irresponsible, and that anyone who dared to relax their own approach was being incredibly selfish and putting everyone else at risk. The letter signed by 1200 scientists is an example of that, the original memo behind it done mostly by "Independent SAGE" which is a political group masquerading as a scientific body. A lot of this was quote posted on this thread as well - wasn't there some quote that kept being posted on here from some WHO official which more or less said the UK government was being almost criminally irresponsible in any kind of relaxation on 19 July? Many of them have either gone quiet now, or started searching for some excuse to justify the falls like suggesting there has been deliberate restriction of test availability to hide true number. They are unable to admit they may have got it wrong. I am afraid mockery of them is entirely justified for their completely misleading beliefs.

Before you all start reaching for eggs and rotting tomatoes may I suggest a wee bit of caution and to wait until people are back in the offices, kids are back at school, youngsters in university and so on? The case load (and number of people in hospital, ICU, dying) is still on the high side I would say. And there's no denying that it could've been lower...

Uni students should be at near full vaccination status by fall. School is a far bigger concern I think.

Yes. Hardly things that were unknown when the predictions and criticisms were made though.

Out of interest what do you think acceptable levels are? And if you think they are too high what restrictions would you bring back in to reduce numbers?

I think it is a bit loaded to talk about "misleading beliefs". All those cautions (which are still valid, despite the current trend) were coming from the data available at the time. The statement from the head of WHO Europe was based on what is known at the time (and that no pandemic has benefited ever from letting mass infection happens). It is how science works. Now it is clear Delta is somehow different, it peaks quickly and decrease quickly. So far nobody knows why. Drosten has an hypotheses (which has the benefits to explain the behavior but is completely unproven at this stage) which is due to the slightly earlier peak viral load related to onset of symptoms. Anyway this drop is unexplained.
And it starts to slow down now (not a trend yet though).
One thing should be clear: lessons about who was right and why or wrong and why, and "mockery" should come once it is over. We have learn that with COVID, it is not over until it is over.

yes i set aside the talking heads here because they sometimes do indeed have questionable motives. those non-govt persons appearing on news are more a result of the news outlets giving voice to moments of hysteria rather than the message of common sense and best practices--but wearing a mask and keeping your distance does not make ratings build unfortunately.

i mean the plague was thought to spread due to god, or alignment of stars and planets or the air (this being somewhat correct re coughing etc) but recall we initially were most concerned with fomites and it took a few months to come to agreement on air transmission. but science has proven otherwise because thats how it works.

Absolutely. And I look forward to your updates of data and analysis you find regardless of what point of the cycle we are at of increasing and decreasing cases ;)

A little baffling that we don’t let 16+17 year olds make their own decision on vaccination, given the other freedoms are they afforded by that age. Seems like they’re old enough for it to do some good as well.

i think this is definitely a cultural thing. i could not imagine (as an american) letting a 16-17yo decide on getting a shot at the dr. who would voluntarily want that? high school kids are idiots--i know, i was one.

the goal is to get a drivers license, and for those so inclined, good test scores for a top uni and maybe a job for money. "taking care of yourself" is nowhere near the top because for those lucky enough, mom and dad do that.

They can already choose to join the army.