England under pressure
LONDON: The spread of the coronavirus continues to increase across all parts of England, cases doubling every nine days, according to a new study by Imperial College, putting pressure on the Government to introduce more drastic lockdown restrictions.
The respiratory pandemic has killed more than 45,675 people in Britain, the highest death toll in Europe.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s strategy of local lockdowns to try to contain a second wave is failing to stem the number of infections. Anger is also rising over the costs of the biggest curtailment of freedoms since World War 2.
The infection rate was rising in all age groups with the
Spain, France and Germany to Russia, Poland and Bulgaria.
‘‘If we wait until the intensive care units are full, it will be too late,’’ said German Health Minister Jens Spahn, whose country already has taken in patients from its neighbour the Netherlands, where hospitals have reached their limits.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said yesterday that hospital beds were at 90% of capacity in 16 regions of the country, while officials have warned that even wellequipped health systems such as those in France and Switzerland could highest spread of the disease in the northwest of England and Yorkshire and the Humber region, Imperial found.
The researchers calculated the ‘‘R’’ number of Covid19 infections in England, which measures how many people an infected person will pass the disease to, was 1.6, indicating the epidemic is growing.
‘‘These interim findings paint a concerning picture of the situation in England, where we’re seeing a nationwide increase in infection prevalence, which we know will lead to more hospitalisations and loss of life,’’ chairman in epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial Paul Elliott said. — Reuters
reach breaking point within days.
Hopes that new treatments might curb the spread were dented when the head of Britain’s vaccine procurement task force said that a fully effective vaccine may never be developed and that early versions were likely to be imperfect.
The latest figures from the World Health Organisation on Tuesday showed Europe reported 1.3 million new cases in the past seven days, nearly half the 2.9 million reported worldwide, with over 11,700 deaths, a 37% jump over the previous week. — Reuters