British officials are considering more severe coronavirus restrictions as the number of hospital patients COVID-19 exceeds the first peak of the spring revolution
Authorities are blaming a new, more susceptible version of the virus, first identified in the south-east of England, for the high rates of infections. An area where nearly half of people in England are subject to strict restrictions on movement and daily life in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. Impaired shops are closed along with gyms and swimming pools, indoor socializing is prohibited and restaurants and pubs can only offer food.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to hold a meeting of his COVID-19 emergency committee later Tuesday. Health Secretary Matt Hancock expects Parliament to update on Wednesday whether more areas will be added to Stage 4 – the highest level of lock-in measures – and whether the restrictions can be tightened further.
Hospitals in the worst-hit areas of London and the south of England are becoming increasingly scarce, with ambulances unable to load patients in some hospitals because the beds are full. A growing number of National Health Service workers are off work because they are infected with the virus or self-isolated.
20,426 coronavirus patients in England were hospitalized on Monday morning – the last day for which figures are available – compared to the previous high of 18,974 on 12 April. Britain has recorded more than 71,000 coronavirus deaths, the second highest death toll in Europe. after Italy.
Steve Hams, chief nurse at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the west of England, said medical staff were growing tired. ”
“In April we felt this would be the end of it. But in reality, we are now seeing a third peak so it is very difficult to try to keep our colleagues and teams going through this time, ”he told the BBC.
Dr Sonia Adesara, an emergency room doctor in London, said, “doctors and nurses are allowed to be put off, to make extra movements, to work long hours but it’s a bad situation. ”
“The situation is unbelievable and I think we are very close to being terrible,” she said.
Some scientists are urging Johnson’s Conservative government to postpone plans to reopen schools next week after the Christmas holidays. The government plans to test students regularly for the virus and 1,500 armed forces personnel have been called in to help schools run the test.
Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious epidemiological diseases at University College London, said the rapid spread of the virus meant that other schools had to close, to reopen UK schools. .
“We need to have tight, tight constraints in other areas of society to pay for that,” he said.
NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said healthcare workers were back in the “storm eye” as they had been in the spring.
Stevens said the coronavirus vaccines were promising, and estimated that all vulnerable people in Britain could be vaccinated against the virus by the end of spring 2021. So far, more than 600,000 people in the UK shot a vaccine developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and German company BioNTech, out of a population of 67 million.
Officials and pharmacists hope that UK regulators will soon approve a second coronavirus vaccine for use in Britain. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency evaluates vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Media reports say that approval for this could come this week and that vaccinations could begin next week.
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