The coming weeks may be the most difficult for the health system of Britain in countering the epidemic of coronavirus.
According to Reuters, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty said.
“The next few weeks will be the worst weeks of the pandemic in terms of loading the medical system,” he said.
He said that while at the peak of the “first wave” of the epidemic there were about 18,000 coronavirus patients in hospitals at one time, now it is about 30,000, and such a strain on the medical system is already dangerous.
Over the past week, Britain has recorded several new records of infection, attributed to the spread of a new, more infectious strain. In some areas of London, the number of sick people reaches 1 in 20 people of the population. Last Friday, January 8, the mayor of London, where the high-risk regime was declared, noted that hospitals in the capital are at risk of overflow with patients with coronavirus.
On Jan. 9, the country recorded more than 1,000 deaths a day for the first time. Prior to that, such figures were only in Germany.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 3 million people in Britain have already fallen ill with the coronavirus, of whom 81,000 have died.
Britain is so far the only country in Europe to have already approved three vaccines against coronavirus — BioNTech / Pfizer, AstraZeneca Moderna. About 15 million people, four vulnerable categories, are expected to be vaccinated by mid-February.
To accelerate the program, seven mass vaccination centers have opened across the country.
