British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was briefed this morning on the latest epidemiological evidence from the UK government's scientific advisers. Based on this briefing, British political writers are reporting that ultimately Mr Johnson is not expected to make any announcements today about imposing additional restrictive measures in England.
It is believed that the briefing focused mainly on the figures for Omicron variant patient hospitalisations, which as of Friday numbered almost 115.000 confirmed cases and 366 hospitalized carriers.
The latest aggregate figures from the UK's Health Protection Agency are expected later this afternoon, after a break in the weekend update on the numbers.
However, the head of the NHS Providers Association, Chris Hopson told Sky News that there may be some early indications that the new spate of cases is not causing the huge surge in hospitalisations of the previous wave of the pandemic, as there is no exponential increase in the number of people hospitalised to match the rise in cases.
"Hospitals are not seeing the numbers of older people who have real respiratory problems, who need intensive treatment, who need large amounts of oxygen support. We're just not seeing at this point those numbers that we saw in January 2021," Mr. Hopson observed.
He noted that doctors are now seeing more and more "accidental" cases of coronavirus, meaning patients who are diagnosed with COVID-19 after being admitted to the hospital for other reasons rather than because the symptoms are severe.
However, he warned that public hospitals are already stretched to the limit, as there are also significant staff shortages due to coronavirus and therefore an increase in hospitalisations would lead to the need to prioritise patients.
Source: CNA
[/p]Contents of this article including associated images are belongs to Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
