>all the more conspicuous for happening just two days after the country’s pandemic restrictions were [...] lifted

Lateral flow tests just happened to run out on the day restrictions were lifted. [0] And tada numbers plummet right when gov is taking massive heat for dropping restrictions in the middle of a surge.

Yes really - that is how the current UK gov rolls.

The fact that the author is trying to extrapolate other countries future trajectory based on that is rather amusing.

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lateral-flow...