UK Faces ‘Tough New Year’ Battling Covid

India’s drug regulator is ready to approve the Oxford / AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, three sources told Reuters.

The country’s Central Drug Control Organization (CDSCO), whose experts met for the second time this week, may also approve a locally developed vaccine by Bharat Biotech on Friday, two of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

“Both AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech will get approval today,” said one of the sources.

“All preparations are taking into account today’s date.”

The other sources were less certain about the prospects for Bharat Biotech, but one described the situation as “hopeful”.

More than 50 million doses of the Oxford vaccine have already been stockpiled by its local manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SII), and one of the sources said the injections could begin to be transported from cold storage to Indian states to starting on Saturday.

The coronavirus is now rampant in Irish communities, with a whole set of “worst-case scenarios” coming together to create “explosive impacts,” said the head of the country’s Health Services Executive.

“The virus is absolutely rampant in the community right now, we know for sure,” Paul Reid said.

“Everyone is now at extremely high risk of contracting the virus. We really need our vulnerable groups to be on guard, everyone. And there is no doubt that our health service is on what we would call high alert. “

Mr. Reid urged the public to stay home and adhere to the public health councils.

“We really need everyone to take the really appropriate action that we are asking everyone to do, which is essentially backtracking,” he added.

“Retreat to our homes, drastically reduce our contacts, and really protect ourselves in the days and weeks ahead.”

The UK head of the Royal College of Nursing has warned that the UK is in the “eye of the storm” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic and that the current situation is “unsustainable”.

Mike Adams told Sky News: “We entered this pandemic with a severe shortage of healthcare personnel, particularly nurses.

“If you then add the burnout, the tiredness, the sickness rates that have started to rise, this is the result that no one wants, but it’s really a last resort for people to come back after their leave.”

He added: “In the long run, this will have a detrimental effect on workers, people need a break, they have to rest.

“So it is the eye of the storm and it is a situation that is unsustainable.”

The expectation of a massive rollout of capacity through Nightingale hospitals is “misplaced”, warned the UK director of the Royal College of Nursing.

Mike Adams told Sky News that the staff license was already being canceled in different NHS trusts in England.

When asked if there was enough staff capacity to fill the emergency hospitals, he added: “If we have to cancel the license for the staff in these areas, the obvious question is where will the staff come from to open the Nightingales?

“I’m sure there will be movements to open some beds, there are some open beds in different Nightingale hospitals in different areas of the country.

“I am very concerned that the expectation of this massive deployment of capacity is misplaced because there are no staff to do it.”

While millions of people around the world experienced New Year’s Eve under strict restrictions, the Chinese city where Covid-19 is believed to have originated brought in 2021 with massive celebrations.

People in Wuhan gathered last night in front of the old Hankow Customs building, one of the city’s hottest New Year’s Eve spots, and launched balloons into the air to celebrate the New Year at midnight.

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The dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine warned that the additional pressures seen in London hospitals dealing with large numbers of coronavirus patients appear to have started to spread across the country.

When asked if the problems in the capital were becoming more “widespread”, Dr Alison Pittard told BBC Radio 4 Today program: “That’s what seems to be happening.

“Everyone has seen what is happening in London and the pressure it puts on both organizations and staff, and we fear it is only a matter of time before it starts to spread to other parts of the country, and we are already starting to see that “.

He added: “It is very important that we try to stop transmission in the community because that translates into hospital admissions.”

New Year’s Eve was “pretty quiet” in London, where Level 4 restrictions kept pubs and restaurants closed last night, according to the president of the Metropolitan Police Federation.

Ken Marsh said sporadic gatherings of people “who just don’t take note of what’s being said” were attended by officers and smaller gatherings were also dispersed Thursday night.

“I think the public has really realized that this is really serious, the position that we are in, and we didn’t see the numbers that we thought we would see,” Marsh said. BBC breakfast.

He added that the number of officers who were now with Covid-19 or self-isolating had peaked in the past three to four weeks.

“We probably have 1,200 or 1,300 agents leaving with Covid or self-isolating and this is projected to double in the next two weeks, putting great pressure on my colleagues who are still at work performing their duties,” he said. he told the BBC.

“There are no other officers available other than the ones in the pot.”

A former health department director of immunization backed the revised coronavirus vaccine strategy that delays the launch of second doses of the jab to give more people their first dose.

Professor David Salisbury told BBC Radio 4 Today program: “Of course I accept that it is inconvenient and not useful to have to change appointments and explain to people [about the delay in receiving a second jab] but the reason to do this is to save lives.

“The number of vaccinated so far is realistic when we needed a flood.”

He added: “We know how many have been vaccinated, and across the country there are not that many, but every time we give a second dose at this time, we are hiding it from someone who is likely, if he receives coronavirus, to die and is much more likely die than someone who has already received a single dose.

“I think it’s very clear that this is what we should do.”

UK medical directors have championed a revised plan to give as many people as possible their first dose of coronavirus vaccine before completing the planned two-dose schedule.

Patients will now be given one dose of the vaccine, with the second dose arriving in up to 12 weeks instead of 3 weeks as previously expected, to maximize the number of people receiving some protection against the virus.

Professor Chris Whitty and CMOs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they were confident that the first dose would provide “substantial protection” to people from Covid-19.

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