The worst day yet
Record 57,725 new infections bring total to nearly 2.6m so far – and stricken hospitals are braced for even bigger rises
STAFF in hospitals across the country are bracing themselves for big rises in coronavirus admissions in the coming week as a combination of Christmas mixing and the new highly contagious variant take effect.
More patients are already being treated in hospital for Covid-19 than at the height of the spring peak, but medics say worse is yet to come. Hospitals in London and the South East are under the most strain at present, because it is there that the new ‘super-spreading’ strain of the virus has taken firmest hold.
But as the variant, named B.1.1.7, has already infiltrated elsewhere, doctors believe it is just a matter of time before the situation worsens in other regions too.
It is thought to be up to 70 per cent more infectious than the main strain, so much so that it has already replaced it as the dominant variety across much of southern England. Yesterday saw a record 57,725 newly confirmed infections across the UK, bringing the total to just under 2.6 million since the start of the outbreak.
There were 445 reported Covidrelated deaths, with the grim tally for the pandemic now at 74,570.
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said hospitals nationwide needed to prepare for a new Covid surge, while a nurse at one London hospital said conditions were already ‘unbearable’ – with one patient even being left temporarily without oxygen when their cylinder ran out.
Prof Goddard told the BBC: ‘There’s no doubt Christmas is going to have a big impact. The new variant is also going to have a big impact, [as] we know that it is more infectious, more transmissible. So I think the large numbers that we’re seeing in the South East, in London, in South Wales, is now going to be reflected over the next month, two months even, over the rest of the country.’
Urging hospitals to be ready for the impact, he added: ‘ It seems very likely we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that.’
The nurse, who did not want to give their name, claimed staff at the Whittington Hospital in North London were struggling to cope with the influx of Covid patients. ‘Some are in corridors, being looked after in makeshift areas, makeshift wards have been created for Covid patients, and intensive care units are running out of space,’ the nurse said.
One male patient ‘ thought he was receiving oxygen but the whole cylinder had run out – because of staff shortages and because the nurses are tired, no one had checked on him’.
The nurse s ai d s ome Covid patients were even being treated in the backs of ambulances due to the pressure on staffing and space.
A Whittington Hospital spokesman said: ‘While we do not comment on anonymous claims, we take these allegations very seriously.’
Half of hospital trusts across England are now caring for more Covid19 patients than during the spring peak. The most recent UK-wide figures, from December 28, show there were 23,823 people being treated in hospital for Covid-19, ten per cent more than the worst point in the spring.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said the record number of infections ‘are a stark reminder that, as we leave 2020 behind, we are not yet out of the woods – transmission is very high and many lives are still tragically being lost’.
Last night, it was also claimed that health bosses are considering cancelling some cancer operations in London because of the pressure.
A senior NHS figure told The Observer they were considering
‘The new variant of Covid is going to have a big impact’ ‘A stark reminder we are not out of the woods’
rescheduling ‘priority two’ procedures, where patients need surgery within 28 days. The executive said: ‘ These are operations that are curative if done within four weeks but if you wait longer they may not be so effective.’
Twenty-nine out of 39 NHS hospital trusts in and around London have now cancelled most preplanned operations.
Professor Neil Mortensen, of the Royal College of Surgeons, said watching hospitals buckling under the pressure over the past month had been ‘like watching a car crash in slow motion’.
Meanwhile, the Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London is being reactivated, but Dr Adrian Boyle, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, warned that without the necessary staff ‘it is useless’. Intensive care nurse Dave Carr, of St Thomas’ in London, said: ‘This is worse than the first wave.’