To make the pandemic experience as bad as possible we are bombarded with statistics and charts every day telling us that N people died of Covid-19 yesterday, there are X number of cases, and the dreaded London boroughs league table.
These statistics of disease are provided with the best of intentions by professionals who are the best in their subject area. The data they use is just as important to defeating Covid-19 as any vaccination.
About this chart
The chart above shows increases and decreases across the borough in terms of cases (not deaths). This is for the week 27 December 2020 to 3 January 2021.
As you can see Limehouse North & Stepney East had a hard time during the week shown with an increase of 89 new Covid-19 cases.
By contrast Bow South had a drop of 51 cases for the week.
There seems to be a bit of cluster in Poplar. Look at Poplar Central (+ 42), Poplar Leaside (+ 43) and Poplar West (+ 37).
Problem is we may live in a borough but it is our local community which concerns us, where we live. Y number of cases in Tower Hamlets and X number of deaths is for an area big enough to fit 320,000 people in, whatever their state of health.
A MSOA Whatwherewhy?
As a London borough is pretty big the census people have created a system which chops boroughs up into smaller bits, each of which contains around 8,000 people.
These are called Mid Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs). Snappy, huh?
There are 7,201 middle layer super output areas (MSOA) in England and Wales and the ones in Tower Hamlets include Bow North & Fish Island, Columbia Road, Mile End East & Burdett Estate and Shadwell Basin & Ratcliffe.
More useful for people than wards, innit?
Did you find this useful or not? Let us know either way, drop us a line at hello@eastendenquirer.org
More visual analysis later…
Related Internet Links
- A Guide to Census Geography – Tower Hamlets Council
- Census Geography – ONS
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