UK sees record daily COVID deaths, London hospitals on brink

[rooster59]

UK sees record daily COVID deaths, London hospitals on brink

By Michael Holden and Alistair Smout

 

FILE PHOTO: Vials labelled "COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine" are placed on dry ice in this illustration taken, December 5, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom recorded its highest daily death toll on Friday since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as London declared a major incident, warning that its hospitals were at risk of being overwhelmed.

 

With a highly transmissable new variant of the virus surging across Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shuttered the economy and is rushing out vaccines faster than the country's European neighbours in a bid to stem the pandemic.

 

Britain has the world's fifth-highest official death toll from COVID-19 at nearly 80,000, and the 1,325 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive test on Friday surpassed the previous daily record from last April.

 

"Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates across the entire country continue to soar at an alarming rate," Johnson said in a statement.

 

"The NHS (National Health Service) is under severe strain and we must take action to protect it, both so our doctors and nurses can continue to save lives and so they can vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as we can."

 

A further 68,053 COVID-19 cases were reported - also a new daily high - meaning almost three million people have now tested positive for the disease in the United Kingdom, which has a total population of around 67 million.

 

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, from the opposition Labour Party, said hospital beds in the capital would run out within the next few weeks because the spread of the virus was "out of control".

 

"We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point," Khan said.

 

The designation of "major incident" is usually reserved for attacks or grave accidents, notably those likely to involve "serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security".

 

London's last "major incident" was the Grenfell Tower fire in a high-rise residential block in 2017, when 72 people died.

 

VACCINE CONCERN

 

Khan said there were parts of London where 1 in 20 people had the virus. The pressure on the ambulance service, which was now dealing with up to 9,000 emergency calls a day, meant firefighters were being drafted in to drive vehicles, and police officers would follow.

 

London, which vies with Paris for the status of Europe's richest city, has a population of more than nine million.

 

The Office for National Statistics estimated that 1.1 million people in England had the coronavirus in the week to Jan. 2, the equivalent of one person in 50.

 

Britain, the first country to approve vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca, on Friday approved Moderna's shot, which it hopes to begin administering this spring. It also agreed to purchase an additional 10 million Moderna doses.

 

However, transport minister Grant Shapps said there were fears that some vaccines might not work properly against a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in South Africa.

 

"This is a very big concern for the scientists," he told LBC radio.

 

A laboratory study by the U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, not yet peer-reviewed, indicated that the vaccine it is making, developed by Germany's BioNTech, does work against one key mutation in the new variants found in Britain and South Africa.

 

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Alistair Smout, Andy Bruce and Kate Holton; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-09

 

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[edwinchester]

Johnson and his Government were warned of this surge by doctors and the Opposition in Parliament at least 5 weeks ago but chose to do next to nothing. They are directly responsible and must be held to account.

[bannork]

22 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Johnson and his Government were warned of this surge by doctors and the Opposition in Parliament at least 5 weeks ago but chose to do next to nothing. They are directly responsible and must be held to account.

That's right, the ditherer has consistently ignored scientific advice until forced to take action. He won't be forgiven if the NHS is overwhelmed and people are left to die untreated. 

What was it with opening schools just for one day? Stupidity of the highest order.

[BRUFC]

The NHS lurches into a crisis every winter.e NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

[Kwasaki]

If you were to ask my opinion the govt have gone about it the wrong for example.

e.g. " Here your jab sir because your 73 "  (me) what about my wife whose out about working like the workings siblings of old people. " Oh !!  we are only giving it to old people in homes and old people at home " (me) In that case I don't want it, people out and about working should get the jab first this virus is killing young working people too, their the priority and future not older people like me..

[edwinchester]

2 hours ago, BRUFC said:

The NHS lurches into a crisis every winter.e NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

Sure it does but ignoring all the evidence that the covid epidemic will make the crisis much worse is unforgivable. Johnson and his gang of incompetents are directly responsible for 10's of thousands of unnecessary deaths and must be held accountable.

[Bender Rodriguez]

5 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Johnson and his Government were warned of this surge by doctors and the Opposition in Parliament at least 5 weeks ago but chose to do next to nothing. They are directly responsible and must be held to account.

 

so people are not responsible of their own health ?

 

being overweight and sick because of the bad food choices is not the responsibility of the individual ?

 

 

[jaiyen]

What annoys me is that people can still fly all over the world from the UK !  We are getting them here in Perth, which is almost the safest city in the world. They should stop all International passenger flights from UK. Or is that just too obvious.

[edwinchester]

3 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

 

so people are not responsible of their own health ?

 

being overweight and sick because of the bad food choices is not the responsibility of the individual ?

 

 

Both my daughters back in the UK are frontline NHS staff and I can assure you it is not only the sick and overweight dying.

The UK Govt should have introduced stricter measures many weeks ago to avoid the deaths and lockdowns they now have.

[ourmanflint]

This is what happens when you have a country of over privileged "individuals" who think nothing of the greater society. This has been caused by a general lack of compliance, egged on by lockdown and covid sceptics in the mainstream media.

 

[Chomper Higgot]

8 hours ago, BRUFC said:

The NHS lurches into a crisis every winter.e NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

Well, every winter since the Tories have been underfunding the NHS.

[katana]

The common flu has vanished. It’s like Covid 19 is the antidote.

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

This is what happens when you have a country of over privileged "individuals" who think nothing of the greater society. This has been caused by a general lack of compliance, egged on by lockdown and covid sceptics in the mainstream media.

 

The ‘Covid sceptics’ are not dominantly present in the Mainstream Media, they are however very dominantly present across social media. 

[puipuitom]

9 hours ago, BRUFC said:

The NHS lurches into a crisis every winter.e NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

But now, after Brexit, with 350 million pounds a week extra...

[Doowat]

5 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

This is what happens when you have a country of over privileged "individuals" who think nothing of the greater society. This has been caused by a general lack of compliance, egged on by lockdown and covid sceptics in the mainstream media.

 

and when the government consistently lies, exaggerates and manipulates statistics it also undermines people's trust in the rules. And consider this:- if every single person followed the lockdown rules religeously all the sacrifices are for nothing each and every time someone enters the UK via the airports, which they are STILL able to do without proof that they are not carrying the virus and without quarantine rules being enforced. This has been going on since the beginning. By the way, official Govt figures - under 400 have died OF covid who are under 60 and without underlying health problems.

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, katana said:

The common flu has vanished. It’s like Covid 19 is the antidote.

What most likely has happened is because the flu is far less contagious than covid, the measures taken to combat covid, like mask wearing and social distancing, are even more effective against the flu than they are against covid.

[placeholder]

11 hours ago, BRUFC said:

The NHS lurches into a crisis every winter.e NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

And a local armed conflict and a worldwide armed conflict are both wars. So that means since they are both wars, even though one results in many times the deaths of the other, they're both equally bad? You might want to look up the meaning of "proportion."

[Natai Beach]

6 hours ago, jaiyen said:

What annoys me is that people can still fly all over the world from the UK !  We are getting them here in Perth, which is almost the safest city in the world. They should stop all International passenger flights from UK. Or is that just too obvious.

Perth, Brisbane and today the Northern Territory as a

well. A Brit family flew into Thailand last week, they were all infected with the UK mutant strain. 
 

I was just looking at a UK newspaper online. They just don’t get it, people walking around and crowding around with masks, an anti lockdown protest, reports on them holidaying and hospitals overflowing and elderly homes now having mass infections again and doctors having to choose who to try and save and who they won’t. 
 

Australia should be locking them out until they sort it out. The UK are getting worse not improving and making it worse for everyone by spreading their new highly infectious Covid super strain all over the planet. 
 

China stopped their citizens traveling back in January last year. It would be good if the UK followed that example this January.

 

They are entering Australia from the US also. My brother was due to fly out about a week ago. Got tested, was positive, is currently isolating for two weeks but just got a confirmed flight back to Australia for next week. 
 

 

[ourmanflint]

7 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The ‘Covid sceptics’ are not dominantly present in the Mainstream Media, they are however very dominantly present across social media. 

Lockdown sceptics, all over MSM, Hitchens, Young, Bradbury all a pain in the a*se

[sandyf]

On 1/9/2021 at 9:38 AM, BRUFC said:

 NHS lurches into a crisis every winter...this isn't new 'news'.

Of course it is.

 

Dr Boyle says ambulances left queuing outside hospitals meant crews were not available to respond to other emergencies.

He says services are facing a "crisis" unlike any other he has seen.

"People may feel they have a winter crisis every year but this is a different order of magnitude", he added.

"This is the worst winter crisis I've been through in my 25 years of practising as a doctor."

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55581006

[CharlieH]

Reported Troll comment removed.

[Bruntoid]

 Bojo Johnson stated 

 

‘The U.K. will provide a world beating response to the pandemic’ 

 

I think he meant in total of dead ! 
 

This idiot will comfortably go down as the most hapless PM in political history.