LONDON (AP) – British hospitals across the country are facing a dangerous situation in January, medical workers warned on Friday amid rising coronavirus infections, accused of a new variant of the virus. Authorities pressured to reactivate the field hospitals, which previously did nothing but cope with the passage of new patients.
It is concerned about the National Health Service’s already expanded capacity to cope with the anticipated increase in people seeking treatment for COVID-19 infections in the coming weeks, which could continue to be fueled by Christmas and New Year’s Eve gatherings.
On Friday, the United Kingdom registered another 53,285 new infections, slightly lower than the previous day’s record of 55,892. Although comparisons with the onset of the pandemic are difficult, given that testing was limited in the spring, the UK has recorded the four largest new daily infection figures in the last four days – all over 50,000 and about double the daily number of a few days ago weeks.
The director of the Royal College of Nursing in England, Mike Adams, told Sky News that Britain is in the “eye of the storm” and that it is “angry” to see people who do not follow social guidelines of distance or do not wear masks.
A top doctor also warned of burnout among front-line health workers in hospitals, while urging people to abide by the rules.
“I’m worried,” Adrian Boyle, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC. “We’re very much at the battle stations.”
The increase in new cases is said to be due to a new, more contagious variant of the virus first identified around London and the south-east of England.
Given the gaps between new cases, hospitalizations and deaths with COVID-19, there are huge concerns about the path of the pandemic in the next month or two. The UK already has the second highest number of virus deaths in Europe, at 74,125, after another 613 deaths on Friday. The country seems to be overtaking Italy and becoming the most affected country in Europe again.
Following the rise of new infections, which led to even stricter blocking restrictions, the British authorities changed their strategy for launching coronavirus vaccines, choosing to get more people to get an initial shot as soon as possible and postpone the second shot to three months.
In a joint statement, chief doctors in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the first dose of the vaccine provided “substantial” protection.
Currently, two vaccines have been approved for use in the UK and both require two doses per person.
About 1 million people received the first dose of vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech, a small minority also receiving the second dose as planned after 21 days.
Earlier this week, the UK also approved a vaccine developed by Oxford University and the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca which is substantially cheaper and easier to use.
Authorities then drafted the new dosing regimen, which delays a person’s second vaccine from three weeks after administration to 12 weeks after the first shot.
“In the short term, the further increase in the effectiveness of the second dose vaccine is likely to be modest. The vast majority of the initial protection against clinical diseases is after the first dose of vaccine “, said the medical officers.
However, the new plan has faced some criticism. The UK’s main doctors’ union has warned that the delay in the second dose is causing huge scheduling problems for thousands of partially vaccinated elderly and vulnerable people.
“It is extremely unfair for 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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