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Pressure is mounting for tighter coronavirus restrictions in Britain to be extended amid mounting pressure on hospitals in England, where the number of Covid-19 patients is at its highest during the pandemic.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to announce any changes to the level areas in a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday.
With case rates rising across all regions of England and record numbers of patients, any change is likely to involve areas going up one notch rather than down.
Figures from the NHS England showed there were 21,787 patients in NHS hospitals in England at 8am on Tuesday, compared with 20,426 on Monday and 18,974 at the peak of the first wave on April 12.
Five of the seven NHS regions in England report a record number of Covid-19 hospital patients: East England, London, Midlands, South East England and South West England.
The other two regions, the North East and North West of England, remain below the highs that were set in mid-November.
A senior doctor said some hospital trusts in London and the South East were considering the option of setting up tents outside hospitals, something normally reserved for sudden events like terrorist attacks or industrial disasters, to triage patients.
Emergency medicine consultant Simon Walsh said staff were working in “major incident mode” and called on the government to establish a “coherent plan” for the next several weeks.
Dr Walsh, who is also vice chairman of the British Medical Association UK advisory committee, said the trusts “are having crisis meetings, they are asking staff to come to work if they can on their days off.”
“They are dealing with queues for ambulances outside many emergency departments, often with patients sitting in ambulances for many hours until they can be unloaded in the department because there is simply no room to put them.”
Record
Total UK coronavirus cases hit a record on Tuesday, surpassing 50,000 cases for the first time, to 53,135 laboratory-confirmed cases.
While the number was likely inflated by a delay in submitting data across the UK over Christmas, and part of the total includes people who tested positive before December 25, said Dr Susan Hopkins, Senior Advisor Senior Physician at Public Health England. the figures were “largely a reflection of a real increase.”
He said that the “unprecedented levels” of Covid-19 infection across the UK were of “extreme concern”.
It is not possible to make direct comparisons with the level of infection during the first wave of the virus, because mass testing was introduced in the UK only in May, but it has been estimated that there may be up to 100,000 cases per day at the peak in late March and early April.
An expert advisor to the British government said national coronavirus restrictions were needed to prevent a “catastrophe” amid rising infections, and the head of an organization representing health trusts said “as much of the country as possible “It should go to Level 4 more severe.
Professor Andrew Hayward of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag) said widespread Level 4, or even higher, restrictions are likely to be needed as the country moves towards “near lockdown” .
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “I think we are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic and we are going to need early and decisive national action to avoid a catastrophe in January and February.” – PA
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