PM Johnson says UK in 'race against time' as it faces worst weeks of pandemic

[snoop1130]

PM Johnson says UK in 'race against time' as it faces worst weeks of pandemic

By Michael Holden

 

A sign is pictured outside the Millennium Point Vaccination Centre, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Birmingham, Britain, January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday Britain was in "a race against time" to roll out COVID-19 vaccines as deaths hit record highs and hospitals ran out of oxygen, and his top medical adviser said the pandemic's worst weeks were imminent.

 

A new, more transmissible variant of the disease is now surging through the population, with one in 20 people in parts of London now infected, threatening to overwhelm the National Health Service (NHS) as hospitals fill up with patients.

 

The death toll in the United Kingdom has been soaring and now stands in excess of 81,000 - the world's fifth-highest official toll - while more than three million people have tested positive.

 

In a bid to get on top of the pandemic and to try to restore some degree of normality by the spring, Britain is rushing out its largest ever vaccination programme, with shots to be offered to about 15 million people by the middle of next month.

 

"It's a race against time because we can all see the threat that our NHS faces, the pressure it's under, the demand in intensive care units, the pressure on ventilated beds, even the shortage of oxygen in some places," Johnson said on a visit to a vaccination centre in Bristol, in southwest England.

 

"This is a very perilous moment. The worst thing now for us is to allow success in rolling out a vaccine programme to breed any kind of complacency about the state of the pandemic."

 

The government's chief medical adviser Chris Whitty earlier said the situation was set to deteriorate.

 

"The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS," he told BBC TV.

 

"Anybody who is not shocked by the number of people in hospital who are seriously ill at the moment and who are dying over the course of this pandemic, I think, has not understood this at all. This is an appalling situation," he told BBC TV.

 

VACCINATION TARGET

 

Health minister Matt Hancock said there were now more than 32,000 COVID-19 patients in hospital, far more than the roughly 18,000 hospitalised during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in April.

 

Johnson's government is pinning its hopes on a mass vaccination programme after Britain became the first country to approve vaccines developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and by Pfizer/BioNTech. It also approved Moderna's shot last Friday.

 

Its plan, announced on Monday, envisages two million shots being delivered to around 2,700 centres a week in England by the end of January, with the aim of immunising tens of millions of people by the spring and all adults offered a vaccine by the autumn.

 

The first daily vaccination statistics showed that nearly 2.3 million people had so far received their first doses of a COVID vaccine and nearly 400,000 had received a second dose.

 

Johnson said more had received the vaccine in Britain than in any other European country but admitted that inoculating 15 million people in the four highest risk levels, including those over 70 and frontline health workers, by a Feb. 15 target was "a huge ask".

 

"We believe it's achievable, we're going throw absolutely everything at it, to get it done," he said.

 

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has repeatedly accused Johnson of being too slow to respond to the pandemic, said the prime minister's indecision had cost lives and worsened the economic impact

 

Ministers and health chiefs have pleaded with Britons to stay at home, amid fears that some people are not adhering to the rules strictly enough, along with concern that the virus is being spread in supermarkets.

 

Hancock said that support bubbles, where households can "bubble" with another if they are single-person or fit other criteria, would be maintained, but that rules on exercising with someone else could be restricted.

 

"Where we have to tighten them, we will," Johnson said of the rules.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-12

 

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[klauskunkel]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It's a race against time

we're going throw absolutely everything at it

This is a very perilous moment.

and from another TV article

Quote

We have been clear that those who breach Covid-19 legislation are increasingly likely to face fines.

there is an incremental chance that there could be a penalty if we think really hard about it, maybe! 

[Natai Beach]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It's a race against time because we can all see the threat that our NHS faces, the pressure it's under, the demand in intensive care units, the pressure on ventilated beds, even the shortage of oxygen in some places

 

Boris has been harping on for a year with self praise how well they are doing and preparing and still they don’t even have enough oxygen?
 

it is not like oxygen is a rare commodity.

 

A year on, and it just gets worse and worse in the UK.

A year ago he was telling everyone to NOT wear masks, running around hospitals pressuring everyone to shake his hand, and saying the UK would “take in on the chin”.

 

And the result is we have a new highly contagious mutant UK Covid  super strain that isn’t just wiping out thousands of Brits, but it is rapidly spreading around the world and killing thousands everywhere. 
 

It looks like Boris still doesn’t really get it. 
Even though he got it himself. 
Wake up.

 

About a quarter of Brits say they will refuse the vaccine. So how is this latest Boris plan going to work even if he rolls it out successfully which history shows he won’t be able to. 
 

Yesterday nearly 16,000 deaths. The most ever. It is getting worse not better.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Natai Beach

[TKDfella]

I have been trying to contact to one of my children in the UK who is in the medical profession. Unfortunately, other members of my family tell me many medical staff at the same hospital are almost on 24/7 call or are 'living' in rooms provided.

Edited January 13, 2021 by TKDfella

[Jonnapat]

Allowing family get togethers at Christmas has obviously had a hand in the big rises of deaths recently. 

Intention could be argued as well meaning but flawed in that a further spread was inevitable. 

[superal]

2 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

 

Boris has been harping on for a year with self praise how well they are doing and preparing and still they don’t even have enough oxygen?
 

it is not like oxygen is a rare commodity.

 

A year on, and it just gets worse and worse in the UK.

A year ago he was telling everyone to NOT wear masks, running around hospitals pressuring everyone to shake his hand, and saying the UK would “take in on the chin”.

 

And the result is we have a new highly contagious mutant UK Covid  super strain that isn’t just wiping out thousands of Brits, but it is rapidly spreading around the world and killing thousands everywhere. 
 

It looks like Boris still doesn’t really get it. 
Even though he got it himself. 
Wake up.

 

About a quarter of Brits say they will refuse the vaccine. So how is this latest Boris plan going to work even if he rolls it out successfully which history shows he won’t be able to. 
 

Yesterday nearly 16,000 deaths. The most ever. It is getting worse not better.

Where do you get your info? Below real stats from the BBC

 

[Natai Beach]

12 minutes ago, superal said:

Where do you get your info? Below real stats from the BBC

 

Closer to 16 than 15. 
 

[superal]

27 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Closer to 16 than 15. 
 

Sorry pal but what is the purpose of your link ?  it tells nothing . Originally you quoted 16000 deaths a day when the correct figure was 1243

[Stargeezr]

If the UK is like Canada, there are many of the medical workers who are at the brink of

total burn out.  I am betting that some of them will retire or quit when this pandemic is

finally over. Some of them will die from covid, and lots of them have lost family members

or friends and people that they cared for, that is very hard to get over.  I feel very sorry for all 

of them.  Glad that I am retired and do not have to go near any hospital or even doctors clinic

for now.  2021 will be a hard year for a lot of people.  Good Luck UK and Europe and everywhere 

actually.

Geezer

[sirineou]

24 minutes ago, car720 said:

and now they are telling us that the vaccine won't stop you from catching it.  It will just help you not to be so sick when you do.

I don't believe that to be true.

Below are some of the benefits of the vaccine as described by the CDC

"All COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States have been shown to be highly effective at preventing COVID-19 "

but the vaccine is only 95% effective at preventing you from getting the viruce , you still have a 5% chance of getting covid 19 even if vaccinated, but if you get covid 19 and have been vaccinated,

"Based on what we know about vaccines for other diseases and early data from clinical trials, experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may also help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19 "

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits.html#:~:text=Based on what we know,get COVID-19.

Edited January 13, 2021 by sirineou

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, sirineou said:

I don't believe that to be true.

Below are some of the benefits of the vaccine as described by the CDC

"All COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States have been shown to be highly effective at preventing COVID-19 "

but the vaccine is only 95% affective at preventing you from getting the viruce e , you still have a 5% chance of getting covid 19 even if vaccinated, but if you get covid 19 and have been vaccinated,

"Based on what we know about vaccines for other diseases and early data from clinical trials, experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may also help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19 "

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits.html#:~:text=Based on what we know,get COVID-19.