EVERY 60 SECONDS
140 people are getting vaccinated in UK
THE race to beat Covid is at a pivotal moment – with a new sufferer arriving in hospital every 30 seconds but 140 people every minute being vaccinated.
NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens said: ‘Hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure.
‘We’ve seen another 15,000 increase in in-patients across England since Christmas Day – equal to filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.
‘Staggeringly, every 30 seconds across England another patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus.’
He warned a quarter of those entering hospital were under 55.
But there was some positive news. The number of people jabbed passed 3.8million and the government said it was on target to vaccinate all 15million in the most vulnerable groups by February 15.
The number of new cases fell to 38,598 yesterday, less than half its peak
three weeks ago, raising hopes that the third national lockdown was working.
However, with admission rates rising in every English region except the north-east, hospitals across the country were expected to hit ‘maximum surge capacity’ by 8am today.
‘The facts are very clear and I’m not going to sugar-coat them,’ Sir Simon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
‘This is a unique event in our 72year history.’
He revealed two thirds of England’s intensive care units have now abandoned the usual practice of one nurse per patient, and more than half have cancelled operations.
‘We currently have around 50,000 NHS staff off for coronavirus-related reasons,’ he said.
‘And we have got three-quarters more Covid inpatients now than we had in the April peak.’
Sir Simon (pictured) said some hospitals would start offering vaccinations round the clock in the next ten days.
‘We are vaccinating four times faster than people are catching coronavirus,’ he added.
‘I’m pretty confident by the time we get to the end of today we will have perhaps done 1.5million vaccinations this week. That’s up from around a million the week before.’
The government said the number of people vaccinated was now greater than the number infected during the whole pandemic.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab played down reports that all over-18s could be offered the jab by the end of June but said the UK was on target to offer the vaccine to those most at risk by February 15.
‘Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose,’ he said. ‘If we can do it faster, great, but that is the road map.’
Ten new mass vaccination centres will open this morning and the government confirmed millions of people in their 70s will this week receive their first invitations to have a jab. Boris Johnson hailed it as a ‘significant milestone’, with more than half of people aged over 80 now vaccinated.
‘We have a long way to go and there will doubtless be challenges ahead,’ the prime minister said. ‘But by working together, we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus.’