Covid neighborhoods ‘full of children’ as British pandemic explodes

Britain reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the pandemic and closed primary schools in London on Friday (local time) to counter the rapid spread of a much more infectious variant of the new coronavirus.

With more than 50,000 new daily cases of Covid-19 in the past four days, the health service said it was preparing for an anticipated rush of patients and needed more beds.

The announcement comes just days after the Royal London Hospital told staff in an email that it was now in ‘disaster medicine mode’ and unable to provide high-level critical care.

With the capital being one of the areas most affected by the new variant, which is said to be up to 70% more contagious, the government has also decided to close all primary schools in London, overturning a decision taken just two years ago. days.

“The education and well-being of children remains a national priority,” Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said. “Moving other parts of London to distance education is really a last resort and a temporary fix.”

Laura Duffell, a matron at King’s College Hospital in London, said the new strain of Covid was affecting children and young adults without underlying health issues in increasingly worrying numbers.

Talk on BBC Radio, she described “entire wards of children” suffering from Covid.

“It’s very different. It’s what makes it so much scarier for us as doctors, nurses and carriers and for everyone who works on the front lines.

“We have children coming. It didn’t affect the kids in the first wave very much … we now have a whole children’s room here and I know some of my colleagues are in the same situation, where they have a whole children’s room here. Covid. “

Some in the British medical community have since disputed Ms Duffell’s claims.

“At this time, we are not seeing significant pressure from COVID-19 in pediatrics across the UK. As cases in the community increase there will be a small increase in the number of children we see with COVID-19, ”the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said in a statement in response to the radio interview.

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“The overwhelming majority of children and young people have no symptoms or very mild illness. The new variant seems to apply to all ages. “

Britain is battling a new wave of the virus that has already killed more than 74,000 people and crushed the economy.

One of the worst-affected countries in the world, it recorded 53,285 cases in the past 24 hours on Friday and 613 new deaths.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been criticized for frequent reversals during the pandemic, including delaying the lockdown during the first wave of March and abandoning a system for assigning grades without exams.

Temporary “Nightingale” hospitals in places such as convention centers were successful, built by the military in a matter of days. They were hardly used but remained on hold.

A Sky News report said intensive care units at three London hospitals were full on New Years Eve, forcing patients to be transferred to other hospitals for intensive care.

‘In anticipation of mounting pressures related to the spread of the new variant of the infection, the NHS London Region has been urged to ensure that the Nightingale is reactivated and ready to admit patients when needed,’ said one spokesperson for the National Health Service (NHS).

The Royal College of Nursing has warned, however, that the country does not have enough nurses to staff the new sites, especially many sick with the virus or forced into self-isolation.

Regarding schooling, the government said it had to close all primary schools in the capital following a review of transmission rates. On Wednesday (local time), Williamson presented a plan to delay the reopening of secondary schools but open most primary schools, including in much of the capital, on time next week after the Christmas break.

The opposition Labor Party said the last-minute overthrow would cause chaos for parents.

with Reuters

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