LONDON (AP) – Starting next week, the UK’s National Health Service will hire a little-used field hospital purpose-built in a massive East London exhibition center in the early days of last spring’s pandemic.
Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, said on Thursday that the pressures facing hospitals in London and the south-east of England are so acute that Nightingale hospital in the ExCel London will open to inpatient patients next week. It is expected that several hundred beds for non-COVID patients will initially be available.
“The entire health service in London is mobilizing to do everything it can, except the infections, the pace of the increase in admissions, that’s what the country needs to collectively control,” he said.
The hospital, which will also be a vaccination center, was one of many built in the spring to help during the pandemic. They are named after Florence Nightingale, widely regarded as the founder of modern nursing. In the event, they were barely used and mothballed for possible use during further waves of the pandemic.
Stevens said the health service is in the midst of an “incredibly dire situation” with over 50% more coronavirus patients in hospitals across England than the April peak. All of this happens when the NHS is busiest due to winter-related conditions.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservative government has been criticized for not locking up England sooner – over the Christmas holidays – given a spike in infections largely due to a new strain of the virus around the capital and southeast England. The lockdown went into effect Tuesday, more than two weeks after scientists warned the new variant may be 70% more contagious.
In another tightening measure, the government announced on Friday that starting next week, all people arriving from other countries must demonstrate a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departure. There are exemptions for some, including truck drivers, airline crew, and children under the age of 11.
Many public health experts have long urged the UK to take the measure as a way to reduce imported infections, although the virus is more widespread in Britain than in many other countries.
The government said the measure will help protect against new variants of the virus, such as a recently identified virus in South Africa.
The UK records virus-related deaths on par with some of the worst days of the pandemic. On Thursday, government figures showed that a further 1,162 people would have died within 28 days of a positive test for the virus. That’s just shy of the record of 1,224 deaths on April 21.
The total virus-related death toll in the UK is now 78,508. According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, the UK is once again the most affected country in Europe in terms of total COVID-related deaths.
While the number of new cases has fallen to 52,618 from the previous day’s record of 62,322, the seven-day average is three times higher than a month ago. Given the delay involved, the UK could face very high daily virus-related deaths for many more days.
Johnson said the likely virus-related death toll in the UK will be “tragically” high, but will ultimately depend on factors such as the speed at which vaccines are rolled out and the extent to which people adhere to the lockdown.
The UK is further down the vaccine path than others, having already approved two for use. Almost 1.5 million people, mainly over 80s, have already received a first dose of vaccine. The government is aiming to deliver a first dose to about 13 million people by mid-February, which accounts for about 85% of those believed to be at greatest risk of dying from COVID-19.
People in the UK were encouraged to “Clap for Heroes” Thursday night. In the early weeks of the pandemic, the weekly “Clap for Carers” was a unifying ritual.
Its return, although rebranded as an acknowledgment of other key workers such as delivery drivers and postmen, received a mixed response. Some NHS employees have asked people to just stay home and not go out to clap.
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