London healthworker cases soar
LONDON: Covid infection rates among doctors, nurses, and other hospital and care home staff have risen more than fivefold over the past month in London, scientists have discovered.
The figures, provided by the Francis Crick Institute, raise fears that the spread of Covid19 into wards and care homes — which triggered tens of thousands of deaths last northern spring — could be repeated unless urgent action is taken.
‘‘It is very, very worrying,’’ said Prof Charles Swanton, who helped set up the institute’s Pipeline testing service.
‘‘Keeping hospitals and care homes free of the virus is crucial but these figures suggest we are heading in the wrong direction.’’
The institute decided in March to set up a Covid testing service for hospital and care home staff in central and north London. Many other UK academic institutions offered to start similar services but were discouraged by the Department of Health and Social Care, which said it wanted to centralise testing operations.
Dr Sam Barrell, the Crick’s chief operating officer, said that in August, just under 0.1% of its daily tests were positive.
‘‘By the end of September, we were seeing around 0.7% of positives. That is at least a fivefold increase.’’
As a result of the increase, the institute has decided to increase its daily tests to 10,000 a day, from between 1500 and 2000.
Britain reported 12,872 new cases on Saturday (local time), a record daily figure for the country, the Government blaming the jump on a reporting delay.
Its website said a technical issue had delayed publishing some new cases, meaning the totals reported in coming days would include some back cases.
Saturday’s tally almost doubled the 6968 reported on Friday, smashing the previous biggest daily toll of 7143, recorded on Tuesday.
Britain is now processing more than 200,000 tests a day compared with fewer than 100,000 at the start of the pandemic.
But the technical issue could be seized on by critics.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said yesterday Boris Johnson had ‘‘lost control’’ of the fight against Covid19 and had no clear strategy for defeating it.
Accusing the Prime Minister of ‘‘serial incompetence’’, he demanded Johnson produce a new ‘‘roadmap’’ for dealing with the crisis that set out clearly what the approach would be until a vaccine was rolled out.