The UK’s National Health Service is preparing for a large backlog of COVID-19 hospitalizations brought on by changes in habit and new strains of the novel coronavirus that causes the disease.
The outbreak has already begun, the UK Health Safety Agency said, and the latest knowledge appears to be that COVID-19 cases have surpassed 32% in England in a single week.
But Jenny Harries, the organisation’s executive leader, told the BBC that the worst is likely yet to come.
“It doesn’t look like this wave is over yet,” he said. “So we expect hospital cases to increase. “
But, despite a doubling of hospital admissions in June that raised the number of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients to 9,000 by the end of the month, Harries suggested others not panic and “go back to their normal lives. “
The UK’s Office for National Statistics, or ONS, told a story, recording 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 last week.
The ONS said the jump was due to the emergence of two subvariants spreading from the Omicron strain of the novel coronavirus, BA. 4 and BA. 5, which had more opportunities to spread as many other people let go of their guard and returned to work and work. crowded summer events.
Lately it is believed that in the United Kingdom there are around 2. 3 million people suffering from the new coronavirus, which is equivalent to approximately one in 30 people.
Harries said it’s also likely that existing vaccines won’t work as well on new strains as they do on previous strains.
“For this specific wave, we have evidence that there may be slight relief in vaccine efficacy in variants,” he told the broadcaster.
But he said fitness agencies still need to make sure “most people” will be “safe from serious illness and out of hospital”.
The fact that the UK no longer conducts large-scale testing for COVID-19 and does not require other people with the disease to self-isolate means it will spread largely uncontrollably.
The Guardian newspaper said fitness chiefs are preparing for a “bumpy race” in the coming months as the outbreak overlaps with the expected early start to the winter flu season.
Saffron Cordery, acting executive leader of NHS Providers, the organisation representing NHS trusts, told the newspaper: “The policy of living with COVID does not mean COVID is gone. The latest knowledge shows that we cannot be complacent. “
Cordery said the situation will add to “the pressure on NHS staff and requested facilities and their efforts to take on waiting lists, to achieve efficiency and the NHS”.
The deadliest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK came in January 2021, when the Alpha variant sent more than 4000 people a day to hospital.