“The situation in London is now critical, with the virus spreading out of control. (…) The reality is that we will be without beds for patients in the next two weeks if the spread of the virus does not decrease dramatically,” communicated.
The number of cases in London exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates in the country, he said.
Between December 30 and January 6, the number of patients in London hospitals increased 27%, from 5,524 to 7,034, 35% more than during the peak of the first wave in April, and the number of people in need of a ventilator rose 42%, from 640 to 908.
On Thursday, the chairman of the British Public Health Service (NHS), Simon Stevens, revealed that more than 800 people infected with covid-19 are being hospitalized each day in London hospitals, equivalent to the capacity of the hospital in St Thomas, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson was at the intensive care unit in April 2020.
The London Ambulance Service is receiving about 8,000 emergency calls per day, compared to 5,500 on an ordinary day, and in the last three days alone, 477 infected deaths have been reported in London hospitals.
A “serious incident” is defined as an event or emergency situation that requires a special coordinated response between the various public services, having previously been invoked in situations such as the terrorist attacks at Westminster and London Bridge in 2017, and the Tower fire Grenfell in June of the same year.
The UK has one of the heaviest swings in the covid-19 pandemic, 78,508 deaths recorded as of Thursday, with British authorities having attributed an acceleration of infections in recent weeks to a highly infectious coronavirus strain identified in southern England.
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