LONDON (AP) – British hospitals across the country are facing a dangerous situation in January, medical workers warned Friday amid rising coronavirus infections blamed on a new virus variant. Authorities pushed to reactivate field hospitals previously mothballed just to accommodate the crushing of new patients.
Concerns are mounting over the already stretched National Health Service’s ability to cope with the projected increase in the number of people seeking treatment for COVID-19 infections in the coming weeks, which could still be fueled by festive gatherings during Christmas and New Year.
On Friday, the UK registered a further 53,285 new infections, slightly lower than the previous day’s record of 55,892. While comparisons to the onset of the pandemic are difficult given that spring testing was limited, in the past four days the UK has recorded the four highest daily new infection rates – all over 50,000 and about double the daily count of a few weeks ago. .
The director of the Royal College of Nursing in England, Mike Adams, told Sky News that the UK was in the “eye of the storm” and it was “annoying” to see people not following remote guidance or wearing masks. .
A leading physician also warned of burnout among frontline health workers in hospitals, while also urging people to follow the rules.
“I’m concerned,” Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC. “We are very much like combat stations.”
The spike in new cases is said to be due to a new, more contagious variant of the virus first identified around London and southeast England.
Given the time lapse between new cases, hospitalizations and COVID-19 deaths, there are major concerns about the course of the pandemic over the next two months. Britain already has the second highest virus death toll in Europe with 74,125, after a further 613 deaths were recorded Friday. The country appears to be catching up with Italy and once again becoming the worst hit country in Europe.
As a result of the spike in new infections, which has led to even tighter lockdown restrictions, UK authorities have changed their coronavirus vaccine rollout strategy, choosing to give more people a first shot as soon as possible and firing the second shot. to set. up to three months.
In a joint statement, the Chief Medical Officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the first dose of vaccine provides “substantial” protection.
Currently, two vaccines are approved for use in the UK and both require two doses per person.
About 1 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech, and a small minority will also receive the second dose after 21 days as planned.
Earlier this week, Britain also approved a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca it is considerably cheaper and easier to use.
Authorities then outlined the new dosing regimen, delaying a person’s second vaccination from three weeks to 12 weeks after the first injection.
“In the short term, the additional increase in vaccine efficacy from the second dose is likely to be modest. The vast majority of initial protection against clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine, ”said medical officials.
Still, the new plan has received some criticism. The UK’s leading doctors’ association warned that delaying the second dose is causing huge planning problems for thousands of partially vaccinated elderly and vulnerable people.
“It is gross and blatantly unfair to tens of thousands of our most at-risk patients to try to reschedule their appointments now,” said Richard Vautrey of the British Medical Association.
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