If the British government’s goal throughout the coronavirus pandemic was to protect the health service, the coming weeks will be the biggest challenge so far.
After overtaking Italy again, the country with the highest number of deaths in Europe, the United Kingdom is at the epicenter fight to contain Covid-19. Daily infections are at a record high – one in 50 people in England now has the disease – while Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed schools this week and ordered people to stay home.
Medical staff say they could be forced to remove people from hospitals if the latest blockade fails to reduce a new strain of the virus that appeared in the south-east of England last month fast enough.
Winter is already spreading health care and the virus means that more patients are pouring into the corridors, and others need to be treated in parked ambulances. The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said the National Health Service is facing a crisis as rampant infections combine with disease and staff exhaustion.
“There are so many thousands of patients coming in,” said Tom Dolphin, 42, an anesthesiologist at a London hospital. “The worrying thing is that I probably haven’t seen the peak since the patients got infected. during Christmas and New Year. “
Ambulances outside Royal Liverpool University Hospital on 5 January.
Photographer: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
During 10 months of turmoil By managing the pandemic, the British government managed to keep the country’s cherished NHS afloat and then became the first Western country to start immunizing its citizens. That now risks becoming an empty victory, as an accelerated vaccination program fights an out-of-control virus.
Doctors have pressured Johnson to take action nationwide amid rising cases in recent weeks. But even on the weekend, the government was suggesting that schools remain open.
Fast downloadWhat worries the coronavirus moved from the UK
The new treatments mean that a higher proportion of patients with Covid-19 are kept alive, but many still have to stay in the hospital because of difficulty breathing. This also puts pressure on capacity. The health system had already entered a short pandemic of about 40,000 nurses.
For nurse Stuart Tuckwood, the tougher blockade brings at least some relief, while the country is desperately waiting for the vaccination result to be paid for.
“People know how bad things are and how much worse they will be if cases continue to grow as they are,” said Tuckwood, who works at a hospital in the south of England and is also a national healthcare officer. to the Unison union. “We cannot rely on the fact that the vaccine is the magic solution. There can be no satisfaction with the ability of the health service and staff to cope. “
A pedestrian walks along London’s Regent Street on January 5th.
Photographer: Hollie Adams / Bloomberg
The death toll in the UK was 76,423, according to Bloomberg Coronavirus Tracker, after the deaths have overtaken Italy in recent days. The number of daily cases rose to almost 61,000 on Tuesday – the most since the coronavirus entered Europe, although even after Britain stepped up tests.
Johnson said Monday in a televised address that the number of patients with Covid in hospitals in England was 40% higher than the first peak in April. The pressure on intensive care units has already been severe during the holidays, with figures published in The Health Service Journal shows that they were operating at over 110% of capacity in London and the south-east of England at the end of December. Some patients had to be transported for hours in the south-west or north of England.
The dramatic escalation made Johnson do it bet on multiple fronts. In addition to blocking the nation again, the government is trying the number of people receiving the first dose of the vaccine increases rapidly, pushing back the second dose.
It aims to expand the supply of the two vaccines launched: one from Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE and the other from AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford. This move has won the support of health experts, but has raised concerns from others, including Pfizer.
The aim is to maximize the number of vulnerable people who will receive at least protection in the shortest possible time. The UK health authorities have indicated data showing that vaccines provide considerable defense after a single dose, with the second major long-term blow.
Johnson said Tuesday that 1.3 million people were immunized, or nearly 2 percent of the population, by far most in Europe. Germany has vaccinated 317,000 people since January 5 and France only 2,000, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine tracking. The London government has set a target of vaccinating nearly 14 million people by mid-February.
Brian Pinker, 82, receives the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine and Oxford University Oxford Covid-19 at Churchill Hospital in Oxford on January 4.
Photographer: Steve Parsons / PA Wire / Bloomberg
The reality is that the UK has few options. New infections in the UK – 720 per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days – have occurred in over twice as much as Italy or France at the end of December, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
There are almost 9,000 more coronavirus patients in hospital beds than there were on Christmas Day – the equivalent of almost 18 hospitals, according to the NHS Providers group.
Stress on doctors and nurses is on the rise and “this really triggers the need for a new way of thinking,” said Doug Brown, executive director of the British Society for Immunology. “The risk of not doing so is much higher.” In a normal world, the country will stick to the dosage tested in clinical trials, he said. “We’re not in a normal world right now.”
Protecting the NHS resonates in the UK. During the first blockade in the spring, people stood on their doorsteps and applauded health workers every Thursday night, and children painted rainbows to stick to the front windows. The government is relying on a tired nation to step up again, with the NHS now the key to launching vaccines.
Read more: UK hospitals face breaking point as Johnson prepares to block
Finding and seconding enough staff to carry out about 2 million vaccinations a week is not an easy task and will have a major impact on health services, he said. Richard Sloggett, former special adviser to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“We certainly feel that we are moving to a point where we are betting on a vaccination program,” said Sloggett, a senior executive at the Policy Exchange think tank.
The hope is that the blockade will work before hospitals can cope, said Dolphin, the anesthetist, who is also a member of the BMA board. The restrictions are set to apply in England until at least mid-February, although Johnson told a news conference on Tuesday that there could be many more months of restrictions.
“It gets to the point where the service is not what we normally recognize as appropriate for the UK,” Dolphin said. “Or suitable for any country, indeed.”
– With the assistance of Suzy Waite, Neil Callanan and Eric Pfanner