Britain suffers deadliest day with some hospitals “Like a war zone”

Photographer: Tolga Akmen / AFP / Getty Images

Britain suffered its worst day of the pandemic on Wednesday, with more than 1,800 deaths in 24 hours, as Boris Johnson’s chief scientific adviser warned that some hospitals now look “like a war zone”.

The record daily number brings the total number of people who died within 28 days of a positive test in the UK to 93,290. Nearly 40,000 patients are now receiving treatment in UK hospitals.

England is in its third national blockade and similar measures are in place in the UK, but while restrictions have begun to reduce infection rates, officials say death rates and pressure on The National Health Service will continue to grow.

“This is very, very bad at the moment, with enormous pressure,” Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, told Sky News when asked about the situation in hospitals. “In some cases it looks like a war zone.”

Johnson reinforced the idea. “It is true that it seems that infection rates in the country in general could now peak or flatten, but they are not flattening very quickly and it is clear that we need to keep this under control,” the reporter’s prime minister said on Wednesday.

Ministers said earlier that the blockade could be eased gradually after about 15 million people who are most vulnerable to the disease received vaccines, which the government wants to do by mid-February.

Vaccines

After three days in which the vaccination rate slowed down, the number of people who received the first injections increased again by 343,163 injections on January 19. More than 4.6 million people in the UK have received the first doses. The government has continued to expand vaccine sites, including a mosque in Birmingham and an Odeon cinema in Aylesbury, England.

Vallance also said some restrictions may be needed next winter – including wearing masks, especially indoors.

Any delay in lifting the blockade could cause political problems for Johnson, who faces dissatisfaction among Conservative lawmakers over the damage the measures are doing to the economy. Steve Baker, a senior member of parliament, warned last week that it would be a “disaster” if pandemic restrictions lasted until spring.

“Go hard early”

The latest data from one of the largest virus studies in the country have shown a worsening picture, especially in London. One in 36 people in the capital was infected with Covid-19 between January 6 and January 15, more than double the results in early December, according to a study by Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI.

Vallance suggested that the government should take into account the lessons of the pandemic. The evidence shows that “you have to go harder earlier and wider if you want to get over it,” he said. “Waiting and watching don’t work.”

He added that “stricter” quarantine measures for travelers last January and February could have helped prevent the importation of the disease, but by March “we had so many cases, I don’t think it would have made much difference.”

The government’s top scientist has been optimistic about the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, despite early analysis by Israel, which suggests it is much less effective after the first dose than previously thought. If confirmed, this would raise questions about the UK’s strategy of delaying the second dose to reach more people for their first.

But Vallance said studies show that the vaccine could be 89 percent effective after a single dose – 10 days after the injection. He said that while “it probably won’t be as high as it is in practice,” it will also not be as low as Israel’s analysis suggests. The scientists will study data from Israel and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks, he said.