My month treating ‘very ill’ Covid patients, by Whitty
Majority on wards ‘are unvaccinated and regret delaying jabs’
ChRIS Whitty has spent the past month treating ‘very sick’ Covid patients who shunned the vaccine, he revealed yesterday.
The country’s chief medical officer said many of those on the wards ‘regret delaying’ their jab.
his comments came as it emerged that more than half of those admitted to hospital with the virus are unvaccinated. Officials are desperately trying to increase uptake after daily cases climbed to their highest level in a month, with 37,314 recorded yesterday.
Professor Whitty, who combines his job advising ministers with shifts at University College hospital in London, said: ‘Four weeks working on a Covid ward makes stark the reality that the majority of our hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated and regret delaying.
‘Some are very sick, including young adults. Please don’t delay your vaccine.’
One in ten adults have not received their first dose, yet they make up 55 per cent of those in hospital with the Delta variant, according to new figures. A Public health england (Phe) report also found that 74 per cent of the 4,112 under-50s in hospital with the Delta variant have not been vaccinated, and just 366 (9 per cent) had received both doses.
More under-50s are now being hospitalised with the virus than over50s, reflecting the lower uptake in younger adults.
So far, 1,189 people – including 113 under-50s – have died after testing positive for the Delta variant, which now makes up 99 per cent of all cases. Two thirds of all deaths in under-50s are people who are unvaccinated, while for over-50s, they make up one third of deaths.
Analysis by Phe suggests the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in england has saved between 91,700 and 98,700 lives, and is believed to have directly averted 82,000 hospital admissions.
While the vaccine offers high protection, experts are concerned that Britain could still be vulnerable to another wave of Covid-19 this winter. hospital admissions, cases and deaths are all increasing slightly, although they remain much lower than at the pandemic’s peak.
Yesterday there were 114 new deaths recorded. Weekly hospital admissions have increased by 8 per cent, but are still below the 1,000 a day forecast by government scientists. Another 858 were admitted yesterday, taking the total number in hospital to 6,441. This compares to nearly 40,000 at the January peak.
Latest government figures also show the R value – the average number of people infected by someone with the virus – has gone up slightly to between 0.9 and 1.2. Last week, it was between 0.8 to 1.
If the R number is above 1, it means the epidemic is growing.
The Office for National Statistics found that one in 80 people in england had the virus last week – about 698,000 in total. This is slightly down on the previous week, when one in 75 tested positive, reflecting falling infections in children as schools broke up for summer.
The highest infection rate is in 16 to 24-year-olds, with around one in 35 testing positive in the week to August 14.
Latest data shows that nearly three million 18 to 29-year-olds remain unjabbed. Officials are urgently trying to get them to come forward, offering perks including free taxi rides and discounted pizzas. Some 1.4million 16 and 17-year-olds have also been invited for their first dose.