UK doctors call for return of Covid restrictions; new mutation
Firefighter Dan Joslin wearing a face shield helps prone a Covid-19 patient as he works alongside critical care nurses in the Intensive Care Unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, southern England.
ADRIAN DENNIS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON — U.K. medical professionals have issued an urgent plea to the British government to reimpose some Covid restrictions due to the increased level of infections and hospitalizations in the country.
Health leaders warned late Tuesday that the U.K. risks “stumbling into a winter crisis” if the government does not enact its “Plan B,” a pledge it made last month in which it said it would reimpose Covid measures if data suggested the National Health Service was “likely to come under unsustainable pressure.”
Officials at the NHS Confederation, which represents organizations across the U.K. healthcare sector, issued a statement calling on the government “to introduce measures, such as mandatory face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces, without delay to keep people well and avoid the NHS from becoming overwhelmed this winter.”
They warned that the National Health Service “is seeing worrying increases in coronavirus cases in its hospitals and the community at a time when it is preparing for a busy winter period, its staff are close to burnout, and it is being expected to recover many of its services that were disrupted by the pandemic.”
The U.K. is currently recording between 40,000 and 50,000 new Covid cases a day and the number of hospitalizations and deaths is steadily rising, although at a much lower pace than earlier in the pandemic thanks to Covid vaccines, which greatly reduce the risk of severe infection, hospitalization and death.
On Tuesday, the U.K. reported 43,738 new Covid cases, a decrease from Monday when 49,156 new cases were recorded, which marked the highest daily number in three months.
Situation ‘will only get worse’
Covid restrictions in England were lifted on July 19 when pubs, restaurants and nightclubs reopened. Mask-wearing also became largely a matter of personal choice apart from on public transport.
The government, under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has previously insisted that Covid restrictions, and potential lockdowns, would only return as a last resort and that the country must “learn to live with the virus.”
On Wednesday, the U.K.’s Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng reiterated that position, saying: “I absolutely think that it would be completely wrong for us to go back into a lockdown,” he told Times Radio.
Noting that hospitalizations and death rates were much lower than in previous peaks of the pandemic, he added that “we are learning, I think, to live with the virus.”
The NHS Confederation on Tuesday said the additional measures that the U.K. could now enact included “clear communications to the public that the level of risk has increased, introducing certificates for people’s Covid vaccine status, and legally mandating people to wear face coverings in certain settings, in…
Read More: UK doctors call for return of Covid restrictions; new mutation