Boris Johnson has reportedly authorised plans to position hundreds of thousands extra in tier 4
Hundreds of thousands extra individuals shall be positioned underneath stay-at-home orders on Wednesday after the UK recorded a document excessive of 53,000 new coronavirus cases.
Boris Johnson has reportedly authorised inserting additional swathes of the nation underneath tier 4 restrictions to manage the unfold of a brand new extremely infectious variant of Covid-19.
The PM met with senior ministers on Tuesday to debate the plans amid calls from scientists to impose a third national lockdown and delay schools reopening.
Based on The Occasions, elements of the southwest and Cumbria within the North West face being moved into tier 4. There’s additionally concern about rising charges within the West Midlands.
‘We’re seeing a surge within the new variant and we have to act rapidly,’ a authorities supply stated.
In the meantime, The Telegraph experiences that secondary colleges are on track to not open as deliberate subsequent week as ministers put together to push ‘way more areas’ right into a tier 4 lockdown on Wednesday.
The PM held a particular Covid-O assembly on Tuesday as hospitals in London started operating out of intensive care beds, forcing NHS bosses to attract up plans to transfer patients from the capital to Yorkshire.
Knowledge leaked to the Well being Service Journal (HSJ) reveals vital care is operating at greater than 100% of capability throughout London and the South East. On Monday evening, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) occupancy was at 114 and 113% respectively, whereas within the East of England it was at 100%.
In every of the areas talked about over 60 % of the sufferers filling ICUs had been affected by Covid-19.
Medics have claimed that some hospitals are operating out of oxygen and are contemplating organising tents to deal with over capability.
Ambulances queue exterior the Royal London Hospital amid a surge in circumstances (Image: PA)
On Tuesday evening strains of ambulances had been seen queueing exterior of the Royal London Hospital with sufferers who had been ready to be handled.
In Romford, north east London, sufferers with Covid-19 have been receiving care in emergency autos parked up exterior Queen’s Hospital earlier than being moved into the constructing.
There at the moment are extra sufferers in hospitals throughout England than on the peak of the pandemic in April with well being bosses warning medical doctors and nurses are ‘back in the eye of the storm’.
Boris Johnson has confronted strain to place the entire of the nation into tier 4 restrictions to cease the NHS changing into overwhelmed in what’s often a busy season.
At the least one Authorities adviser has referred to as for nationwide coronavirus restrictions to forestall a ‘disaster’.
Professor Andrew Hayward, of the Authorities’s New and Rising Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), stated widespread tier 4 restrictions – and even greater – are more likely to be wanted because the nation strikes in the direction of ‘near-lockdown’.
Greater than 40% of the inhabitants of England is already residing underneath the harshest tier 4 guidelines. Well being Secretary Matt Hancock is anticipated to announce which areas shall be moved up a tier within the Home of Commons on Wednesday afternoon.
It comes after the UK recorded 53,135 coronavirus circumstances up to now 24 hours within the largest every day rise for the reason that pandemic started.
Not all circumstances had been reported in full over the Christmas interval resulting in a lag in some information, however Public Well being England stated there had been a ‘actual enhance’ and that the numbers had been of ‘excessive concern’.
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