If the aim of the British government throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been to protect the health service, the coming weeks will be the biggest challenge so far.
After surpassing Italy as the country with the highest number of deaths in Europe, the United Kingdom is at the epicenter of the continent struggle to contain Covid-19. Daily infections are historic (one in 50 people in England now have the disease), while Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week closed schools and ordered the population to stay home.
Medical staff say they may be forced to remove people from hospitals if the latest blockade does not allow a new strain of the virus that emerged in the south-east of England last month to be curbed quickly enough.
Winter is already spreading health care and the virus means there are more patients spilling in the hallways 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 are combined with illness and staff exhaustion.
“There are so many thousands of patients coming in,” said Tom Dolphin, 42, an anesthesiologist at a London hospital. “The most worrying thing is that we have probably not yet seen the peak of patients who arrived infected and arrived during the Christmas and New Year period “.
Ambulances outside Royal Liverpool University Hospital on 5 January.
Photographer: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
For 10 months of turbulence during its period in handling the pandemic, the UK government managed to keep the country’s prized NHS afloat and became the first Western country to start immunizing its citizens. There is now a risk of becoming an empty victory as an accelerated vaccine program competes against an out-of-control virus.
Doctors had been pressuring Johnson to take action across the country amid rising cases in recent weeks. But even on the weekend, the government does suggesting that schools would remain open.
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New treatments mean a higher proportion of patients with Covid-19 are kept alive, but many still need to stay in the hospital for breathing difficulties. This also puts pressure on capacity. The health system had already entered the pandemic of nearly 40,000 nurses.
For nurse Stuart Tuckwood, the tougher blockade entails at least some relief, as the country is desperately waiting for the vaccination union to be paid for.
“People know how bad things are and the worst they will get if cases continue to rise as they are,” said Tuckwood, who works at a hospital in the south of England and is also a national nursing officer at the Unison union. “We cannot trust the vaccine to be the magic solution. There can be no complacency about the ability of the health service and staff to cope.
A pedestrian walks down Regent Street in London on 5 January.
Photographer: Hollie Adams / Bloomberg
According to Bloomberg, the death toll in Britain was 76,423 Coronavirus Tracker, after the fatalities that surpassed that of Italy in recent days. The number of daily cases rose to almost 61,000 on Tuesday, the highest since the coronavirus swept Europe, though also after the UK increased testing.
Johnson said Monday in a televised speech 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 was already severe during the holidays, with figures published in the Health Service Journal shows that they were operating at over 110% of their capacity in London and the south-east of England at the end of December. Some patients had to be transported hours to the south-west or north of England.
The dramatic climb has caused Johnson to do so bet on multiple fronts. In addition to shutting down the nation again, the government is trying rapidly increase the number of people receiving their first dose of vaccine by reversing their second vaccines.
It is aimed at extending the supply of the two vaccines that are being rolled out: one from Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE and the other from AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University. The move garnered the support of some health experts, but sparked concerns from others. including Pfizer.
The aim is to maximize the number of vulnerable people who will get at least some protection in the shortest possible time. The UK health authorities do it was noted that the data showing vaccines offer considerable defense after a single dose, with the second important long-term trait.
Johnson said Tuesday that 1.3 million people had been immunized, or nearly 2 percent of the population, by far most of Europe. According to Bloomberg, Germany had vaccinated 317,000 people as of January 5 and France only 2,000 Vaccine follower. 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 Covid-19 at Churchill Hospital in Oxford on 4 January.
Photographer: Steve Parsons / PA Wire / Bloomberg
The reality, however, is that Britain has little choice. New infections in the UK (720 per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days) occurred in addition to twice as many as Italy or France at the end of December, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
There are nearly 9,000 more coronavirus patients in hospital beds than on Christmas Day, the equivalent of nearly 18 hospitals, according to the NHS Providers group.
Stress for doctors and nurses is increasing and “this really causes the need for a new way of thinking,” said Doug Brown, chief executive of the British Society for Immunology. “The risk of not doing so is much greater.” In a normal world, the country would adhere to the dosage tested in clinical trials, he said. “At the moment we are not in a normal world.”
NHS protection resonates in Britain. During the first closing of spring, people stood at the doors and applauded the health workers every Thursday evening and the children painted rainbows to stick to the front windows. The government is relying on a nation tired of stepping up again as the NHS is now key to deploying vaccines.
Read more: UK hospitals face breaking point as Johnson prepares to close
Finding and deploying enough staff to carry out about 2 million vaccines a week is not an easy task and will have a huge impact on the health service, he said. Richard Sloggett, former special adviser to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“We certainly seem to be moving to a point where we’re betting on the house for a vaccination program,” said Sloggett, a senior member of the Policy Exchange think tank.
The hope is that the closure will work before hospitals can cope with it, said Dolphin, the anesthetist, who is also a member of the BMA board. Restrictions will run in England until at least mid-February, although Johnson noted at a news conference Tuesday that there would be many months of restrictions ahead.
“It is getting to the point that the service is not what we would normally recognize as suitable for the UK,” Dolphin said. “Or suitable for any country, really.”
– With the assistance of Suzy Waite, Neil Callanan and Eric Pfanner