Warning on intensive care as new mutation sweeps in
Don’t let hospitals get swamped, beg medics Variant is behind up to 70pc of fresh outbreaks
YORKSHIRE MEDICS have pleaded with the region to follow Boris Johnson’s strict lockdown rules to prevent its hospital intensivecare units being engulfed by huge numbers of critically ill coronavirus patients.
More than a quarter of new coronavirus cases across the region – and up to 70 per cent in some areas – now stem from the fast- spreading variant that has left hospitals in London overwhelmed, with parts of Yorkshire seeing “scary” rises of more than 60 per cent in a week.
Sheffield consultant Daniele Bryden said it was not too late for Yorkshire to avoid the scenes in London but the region’s intensivecare teams had less “wiggle room” to cope with a surge in demand than those in the capital after months of working flat out dealing with Covid patients.
And despite case rates in the region being lower than in the capital, a nurse said seeing the new variant in Yorkshire felt like watching a tsunami coming from the beach but not being able to run away.
The warnings came as it emerged that a further 1,325 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid- 19, the highest number of UK deaths reported on a single day since the outbreak began. A further 47 deaths were announced in Yorkshire hospitals.
With more than 1.5m people vaccinated so far, a third coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, it was announced yesterday, but doses will not be available until the spring.
Dr Bryden, a consultant in intensivecare medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Vice- Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said: “People may feel, ‘ Well if ( the rise in cases) is going to come, there’s nothing we can do about it’ but actually we really can because the vaccine is very close in terms of the number of people we can get vaccinated and the implications that might have for us in the spring.
“We’ve got the opportunity to actually do something in the week that’s just gone and the week ahead that will have an impact towards the end of January. So that’s when it becomes really, really important, because it’s like a pressure cooker.
“The more you keep putting into the system, it will come under more and more pressure. So we need to make sure we keep infection rates down so that less goes into the system in terms of people who need to have hospital treatment.”
Deborah Harkins, Calderdale’s Director of Public Health, said in her district the number of cases had risen 63 per cent in a week – an increase she described as “scary”.
She said a “superhuman effort” was now needed and that if people locally became complacent the situation in Calderdale could become as bad as elsewhere in the country.
Her counterpart in Bradford, where up to 70 per cent of cases are now from the new strain, said people needed to refocus on washing their hands, wearing face masks when required and ensuring space from others.
Sarah Muckle said: “When Covid measures were first introduced we were all very careful about staying safe – but now there is a danger that we may have let our standards slip almost a year into this crisis.”