The fifth wave of infections is sweeping across the UK, which in recent days has registered several new infection records.
On 22 December, more than 100,000 daily cases of infection were registered for the first time. Less than a week later, the health authorities report 189,213 new infections. The high infection pressure has also accelerated hospital admissions. On Thursday, more than 11,000 corona patients were admitted to British hospitals, which is the highest number since March.
The British Health Service (NHS) fears that hospital admissions will continue to increase in the coming weeks, and is now sending a disappointing message to the hospitals in the country, according to The Independent.
Sore doubts about American strategy
– At war
The health service has been under heavy pressure for a long time as a result of the corona pandemic.
– Due to the high number of infections and the increasing number of hospital admissions, the health service is now at war, says medical director Stephen Powis in the British health service (NHS) on Thursday.
NHS England believes the hospitalization peak will probably not be reached until ten days from now, and is now asking all the country’s hospitals to “prepare for the worst, but hope for the best”, according to the newspaper.
This means, among other things, expanding eight hospitals with temporary field hospitals to accommodate more covid patients. Each of the field hospitals can accommodate around 100 extra patients in addition to those the hospitals have the capacity for.
view more
–
Fears mass outbreaks
With an ever-increasing number of corona patients, there is also a growing concern about mass outbreaks in hospitals.
– We definitely have problems with corona outbreaks in our departments. The spread of infection has affected planned operations, limited bed capacity and forced an increasing number of employees in isolation, a chief physician in Birmingham has previously stated to The Independent.
Many doctors and nurses are already on sick leave due to the high work pressure they have faced in the last two years. This means that several hospitals are already in a vulnerable position, and cannot afford to send more employees in isolation in the event of a mass outbreak.
The NHS is therefore very concerned that the hospitals will end up in a situation where they cannot provide patients with adequate treatment in the future, if the trend does not reverse soon.
Do not take the vaccine – dropped by friends
Testmangel
The NHS ‘warning comes at some point there the country is experiencing a severe shortage of rapid tests, at the same time as larger gatherings are expected in connection with the New Year celebration.
Professor and member of NERVTAG, a group of experts who advise the government’s top medical adviser, Peter Openshaw, says in a radio interview that parties are “perfect” for spreading the coronavirus.
The situation turned upside down
Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, is also concerned about the lack of tests ahead of the big party day.
– Because of course we already have so many cases that the probability that an individual in a social environment on New Year’s Eve is infected, even if the person has potentially tested negative in the last 24 hours, is quite high, he says according to Sky News.
–
