NHS boss: More in hospital with Covid now than when first lockdown began
More people are now in hospital with Covid than when Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown in March, according to the boss of NHS England.
Stephen Powis said during a live briefing today that A&E admissions are at their highest in Liverpool and that the North West has seen a seven-fold increase in Covid hospital admissions.
It comes as Boris Johnson prepares to announce a new three-tier Covid alert warning level that will likely put areas such as Liverpoool and Manchester into a form of lockdown.
Powis said that while hospital admissions are rising quickly in the North East and North West, that the NHS has also improved in treating Covid.
He also announced today that all NHS frontline staff in high risk areas will get regular testing.
“We have new life saving treatments…we better understand the types of oxygen therapies patients need and the best way to care for them and aid their recovery,” he said.
“Fourteen-day survival rates in intensive care have gone from 72 to 85 per cent.”
England deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said at the briefing that cases were “heating up” among people in the 60+ age bracket who are at the highest risk of death from Covid.
The highest number of cases in each part of the country is still among 20-29 year olds.
However, Van-Tam said there was a clear pattern that showed infections increasing in older age groups after cases rise in younger people first.
“You can see the incremental creep of the infection into the next age band up, followed a few weeks later by a creep up again and you can now see the 60+ are also heating up on that chart,” he said.
The North West has an estimated 40 per cent of all Covid cases in England right now, however Van-Tam warned that cases were now quickly rising in the South as well.
“I showed very similar data to MPs and the House of Lords on Friday and the brown chart had not extended that far South, so it has changed in just a matter of few days,” he said.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned today that it was “highly likely” the capital would soon face new restrictions.
“As a country it is vital we properly support businesses, workers and local authorities to ensure the rules are followed and enforced, but also to avert widespread hardship,” he said.