The UK suffers the deadliest day with some hospitals “like a war zone”

Photographer: Tolga Akmen / AFP / Getty Images

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

The record daily number brings to 93,290 the total number of people who have died during the 28 days following a positive test in the UK. Nearly 40,000 patients receive treatment in UK hospitals.

England is in its third national closure and there are similar measures across the UK, but while restrictions have begun to reduce infection rates, officials say mortality rates and pressures The National Health Service will continue to grow.

“This is very, very bad right now, with huge 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 point. “It is true that it seems that infection rates in the country may now be maximum or flattened, but they are not flattening out very quickly and it is clear that we need to control this,” the prime minister said on Wednesday.

Ministers have previously said the blockade could be gradually eased when some 15 million more vulnerable people to the disease have received vaccines, which the government wants to do by mid-February.

Vaccines

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

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

Any delay in lifting the blockade is likely to cause political problems for Johnson, who faces discontent among lawmakers from his Conservative party over the damage the measures are causing 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 showed a worsening picture, especially in London. One in 36 people in the capital became 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 of Ipsos MORI.

Vallance suggested that the government heed the lessons of the pandemic. Evidence shows that “you have to go very early and over if you want to add it,” he said. “Waiting and looking doesn’t work.”

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

The top government scientist gave an optimistic tone about the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, despite early Israeli analyzes suggesting it is much less effective after the first dose than previously thought. If confirmed, this would raise questions about the UK’s strategy to delay a second dose to reach more people first.

But Vallance noted that trial data show that the vaccine could be 89% effective after a dose, starting 10 days after the injection. He said that while “it probably won’t be as high as in practice,” it won’t be as low as Israel’s analysis suggests. Scientists will study data from Israel and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks, he said.