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Published image, Reuters
The currently mutated Corona virus is more severe, stronger and more widespread than the strain that emerged in the first pandemic
All hospitals in Britain have been given warnings about the need to prepare for what is worse in dealing with the new strain of Corona virus and face great pressures such as those facing healthcare hospitals from London and South East England.
The weekly incidence of the Coronavirus in the capital, London, has reached 858 cases per 100,000 population, double the number of infections in the rest of the UK.
The President of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Andrew Goddard, says: “The new strain of the virus is more contagious and is spreading across the country.”
This comes at a time when nearly half of the secondary hospital hospitals (Hospital Trust) which provide secondary care to public health services in England are said to be treating huge numbers of Corona patients who exceed the number of infections at the peak of the first wave in April. The Public Health Authority is under strong pressure “in the middle of winter”.
UK hospital officials have warned that the next few weeks will be “very difficult” as infection rates for the new variant virus exceeded 50,000 cases for the fourth day in a row and the infection rate increased by more than 70% .
Professor Goddard told the BBC morning show: “There is no doubt that the birthday celebrations will have a big impact, and the new strain will have a big impact as well. We know it is more contagious and more transmissible, so I think the large numbers that we see in the South East, London and South Wales, that will affect the rest of the country, within a month or two. “
He added that hospitals in London and the South East “are really suffering” from the pressure and that medical professionals fear “they still have a long way to go”.
He added: “It seems very likely that we will see more and more cases all over Britain, and we need to prepare for that.”
Some patients have been referred for treatment in other areas of hypertension to hospitals in London and South East England.
“A new closure is necessary”
Dominic Harrison, director of public health in Blackburn and Darwin, says: “A new shutdown decision must be made ‘next week’, instead of waiting for infection rates in the north to reach what is happening in London and the South East, and before we say the decision came “late”, it modeled our previous response to the virus.
The British Public Health Authority has confirmed that London’s Nightingale Emergency Hospital is ready to receive patients, while other currently unused sites are in the works.
Professor Goddard said it was important that the public “not give up on caution” and continue to follow government guidelines, including wearing a face mask, maintaining social distancing and washing clothes. hands.
The President of the Royal College of Physicians added: “These measures are the best defense for us, so that the vaccination ends and fulfills its function.”
‘Hospitals are very crowded,’ said the Wales intensive care adviser to the BBC morning program Dr Amy Jones, and that a quarter of their staff were sick or isolated, making the helps patients more difficult.
“We don’t have the support we got in the first wave,” she added. “There is currently a minimal staff who are able to help.”
“When we see the daily numbers, we know it will exhaust the hospital in 10 to 12 days. Only 10 days have passed after Christmas, and the hospital is already crowded.”
And Amy Jones warned that they will reach a point where there are no staff able to take care of people safely.
That is why she urged the public to “only adhere to the rules” and said: “Stop mixing with other families as the virus is spreading like wildfire and we are out of vacancies in hospitals.”
“We face this together”
At the same time, the leading US government infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauchi has said he does not agree with UK plans to vaccinate as many people as possible with just a first dose of the vaccine. Pfizer / Biontech, the second doses being delayed.
Mr. Fauchi stressed that the United States would not adopt a similar strategy.
But the vice-chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization in Britain, Professor Anthony Harenden, has defended the move.
He told the BBC4 Today program that a single dose of the vaccine “provides 90 percent protection” and that the patients he saw accepted the decision because the priority was “to vaccinate as many as possible. of the elderly and vulnerable in society “.
He added: “I think the whole country is facing this together. I think we really want to work together to try to implement the best possible strategy.”
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