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Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Queues in the emergency room
British clinics are working on the attack
Britain reports more than 53,000 new corona cases in one day. Hospitals can barely cope, patients wait up to six hours for an ambulance to arrive, and staff are on edge. In the midst of the crisis, there is only one thing that gives hope to doctors.
Hospitals are full, staff on the brink: record levels of new infections and corona patients are pushing the British healthcare system to the brink. Ambulances are jammed in front of some emergency rooms, according to British media. An employee at a hospital in Kent, England, reported that some patients had to wait up to six hours to receive an ambulance. Some clinics are even considering setting up sorting tents in front of the entrances, also to better control the influx of patients.
The number of corona cases continues to rise sharply: On Tuesday, authorities reported 53,135 new infections, a significant increase from the previous record the day before. Additionally, more corona patients are currently being treated in hospitals than in the previous peak in the spring. Above all, a new variant of the corona virus is blamed for the increasing number of new infections. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had said shortly before Christmas that the mutation was highly contagious and was spreading rapidly.
So far London and the south of England have been particularly hard hit. A new, higher level of corona warning has been in place in these areas for a week now: Millions of people are unable to receive visitors and must only leave their homes in important cases, such as for work or doctor visits. But there are also severe restrictions on public and private life in other parts of the country.
The head of the British NHS health service, Simon Stevens, thanked the clinic and the nursing staff for their continued work. “Many of us have lost relatives, friends and colleagues. And at a time when we were going to party, many people are understandably anxious, frustrated and exhausted,” Stevens said in a video message. “And now we are back in the eye of the storm, which is sweeping Europe and our country with a second crown wave.”
The head of the UK Doctors Association, Samantha Batt-Rawden, wrote on Twitter that the nursing staff had been doing extra work for months. “A lot of people canceled their Christmas party to volunteer extra shifts. But the truth is, a lot of people have died.” British Medical Association ER Doctor Simon Walsh said many clinics were already operating exceptionally. “You face queues for ambulances outside of many emergency rooms, often with patients who have been in the ambulance for many hours because there is simply no room for them.”
Astrazeneca vaccine awaits approval
NHS chief Stevens stressed that hope now rests on mass vaccination against the crown, which Britain had started three weeks ago. Funds from the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and the American company Pfizer are used. Two doses per person are required for full protection from the vaccine. Now the first patients received their second vaccine, including 91-year-old Margaret Keenan, who was the first to be vaccinated on Dec. 8.
The approval of a vaccine that the British-Swedish company Astrazeneca developed together with the University of Oxford is also expected shortly. The review is still ongoing, the responsible British supervisory authority said upon request. Stevens said he estimates that by late spring all at-risk people in the country could be vaccinated. “That is perhaps the greatest ray of hope for next year.”
Due to the difficult health situation, calls for schools to close longer after the Christmas holidays are growing stronger. It is not safe to open schools as planned on Monday, January 4, Zubaida Haque of the Sage scientific panel of experts told ITV: “Children have to go to school, but they have to go to a safe school.” Massive tests are also planned for schoolchildren and students. Here the government has the help of the military. 1500 members of the army must support the youth, as announced by the Defense Ministry in London. However, most will provide help over the phone or online. Schoolchildren and students must test themselves under supervision.
