The whole of England is going into a tightened national lockdown due to the rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement in a TV address at 8pm rather than a news conference.  “The Government is once again instructing you to stay at home,” he said after giving some background to the decision. 

“In England alone, the number of COVID patients in hospitals has increased by nearly a third in the last week to almost 27,000, and that number is 40% higher than the first peak in April. 

“On 29 December, more than 80,000 people tested positive for COVID across the UK, a new record. The number of deaths is up by 20% over the last week.”

Clinically extremely vulnerable people are advised to begin shielding again.

Schools and colleges move to remote learning and this summer’s exams are cancelled.

Schools are not unsafe, Mr Johnson said: “The problem is that schools may nonetheless act as vectors for transmission causing the virus to spread between households.” 

Leaving home is only permitted for essential reasons but outdoor exercise is still allowed.

The PM struck a positive note on vaccination: “By the middle of February, if things go well, and with a fair wind in our sails, we expect to have offered the first vaccine dose to everyone in the four top priority groups, identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.”

Mr Johnson said the rules should be followed from now and will become law on Wednesday morning and Parliament is being recalled later the same day.

“You must once again stay at home, protect the NHS, and save lives,” he concluded. 

Reaction 

Reacting via Twitter, Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of Doctors Association UK, said: “I have no doubt this will have come as a blow to so many. But we are at breaking point on the front line. The NHS could be overwhelmed in 21 days without taking some difficult decisions.”

Read the full article here: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943524

Visiting a north London hospital as some of the first patients received doses of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine, prime minister Boris Johnson said tougher restrictions were inevitable.

‘If you look at the numbers there is no question that we are going to have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course,’ Mr Johnson said.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, has announced a lockdown from midnight – with schools across Scotland to remain closed until February at the earliest.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Sunday called for a full national lockdown in England within 24 hours, and groups including the Doctors Association UK have joined calls for an emergency national lockdown.

COVID-19 lockdown

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt – now chair of the influential House of Commons health select committee – warned that although during his record tenure in the role the NHS had faced four ‘serious winter crises’, soaring rates of COVID-19 infection in the second wave of the pandemic meant pressure on the health service was now ‘off-the-scale worse than any of those’.

Mr Hunt called for immediate closure of schools, borders and a ban on all household mixing.

Calls for rapid action to contain the COVID-19 pandemic came after the UK recorded more than 50,000 new infections per day for six days in a row.

COVID-19 cases rising

More than 75,000 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, and on 28 December 23,823 were in hospital with the virus – more than the number at the peak of the first wave.

DAUK vice chair Dr Natalie Ashburner said: ‘We acknowledge that these decisions are far from easy to make but the rapid of acceleration of the virus is deeply concerning and the current measures don’t appear to be containing transmission of the virus.

‘For the sixth day in a row over 50,000 transmissions have been recorded and the death toll is climbing inexorably. DAUK is particularly worried that things will get even worse as the effects of Christmas and New Year are fully realised.’

Dr Zainab Najim of the DAUK GP committee said: ‘We are in the midst of the toughest winter the NHS has ever seen, exacerbated by the new highly transmissible strain of COVID-19.

‘Sickness rates among NHS staff have doubled to trebled compared to last winter and there are real worries that safe patient care could be compromised by the sheer number of patients needing care and staffing ratios not seen in peacetime.’

Read the full article here: https://www.gponline.com/tougher-measures-imminent-hunt-warns-covid-19-crisis-off-scale/article/1703589

Frontline medics warned the NHS was “on its knees” yesterday as daily coronavirus cases hit a record 58,784. A further 407 virus deaths were reported across the UK and health chiefs had called for tough restrictions like those introduced yesterday. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospitals were “filling up with Covid patients at a deeply alarming rate”. He said: “It’s clear we have reached a critical point where immediate and decisive action is now needed to stem the rapidly rising rate of infections, hospital admissions and deaths.” 

Mr Hopson said the new, faster-spreading variant had “changed the rules of the game” and restrictions must be tightened to prevent large numbers of unnecessary deaths.

The latest data shows there were 26,600 Covid-19 patients in hospitals in England as of 8am yesterday – an increase of 50 percent since Christmas Day when there were 17,700.

Mr Hopson said: “Today’s figures show that, in the 10 days since Christmas, we’ve seen nearly 9,000 more Covid patients in hospital beds. That’s equivalent to 18 hospitals full of new Covid patients in just 10 days.

“Any changes must therefore have a significant impact as quickly as possible. Half measures at this point would be very dangerous.”

Mr Hopson added that the UK needed to see a repeat of the success last spring, when people meticulously followed lockdown rules and transmission rates plummeted.

“This genuinely is one more, time-limited push to get through the next few months.”

Hospital admissions of people with Covid-19 have also reached a record high, NHS England figures show.

A total of 3,145 admissions in England were reported for January 2, passing the previous peak of 3,099 set last April 1.

The number comprises all patients admitted in the previous 24 hours who were known to have Covid-19, plus any patients diagnosed in hospital with Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours.

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director for Public Health England, said the continuous rise in cases and deaths “should be a bitter warning for us all”, adding: “We must not forget the basics – the lives of our friends and family depend on it.

Over the weekend, the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) wrote to the Prime Minister calling for a national lockdown “to avert a national disaster”. DAUK vice-chair Dr Jenny Vaughan said: “We do not ask for this lightly, knowing the effects it will have on so many.

“However, the NHS cannot be allowed to buckle and patient safety has to be the top priority. Our frontline healthcare workers too must be protected.”

DAUK president Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden yesterday tweeted a graph showing the alarming rise in daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people. She said: “Cases in the UK almost vertical with the NHS already on its knees. We are in trouble.”

Coronavirus restrictions in England are “alas probably about to get tougher,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

Speaking to the BBC, Johnson said: “It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country. I am fully reconciled with that.

“I bet the people of this country are reconciled to that,” he added during an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. 

Pressed to elaborate what those tougher restrictions might be, Boris Johnson said: “There are obviously a range of tougher measures that we would have to consider. I don’t want to speculate, I’m not going to speculate now about what they would be.

“Clearly, school closures that we had to do in March is one of those things (…),” he added, as the controversy over the government’s mixed messages over schools reopening continues to dominate headlines in the UK.

Controversy over school opening: On Friday, it was announced that primary schools in London would be closed — but many primary schools in England are still expected to open Monday. 

In an official letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the Doctors’ Association UK warned that the government should review the need to close schools and universities nationally. 

“Studies from Imperial College London show that the new COVID-19 variant has higher transmissibility and showed increasing numbers during the lockdown in November, especially in those aged under 20 years old. This may have been influenced by schools remaining open. The evidence is pointing towards urgent action being required to curb the spread all over the UK,” the organization wrote.

Surge in cases: On Saturday, the UK recorded its highest daily rise in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, with a further 57,725 new coronavirus cases and 445 deaths.

Echoing his warning in October last year, Johnson warned on Sunday that: “It is bumpy, and it’s going to be bumpy.”

Under the current coronavirus “Tiers” system, most of England falls under the toughest Tier 3 and Tier 4 restrictions — with the latter in place for all of London — with a strict stay-at-home message.

Read the full text here from January 3 2021: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-01-03-21/h_bbf0326563a818336d53f31e964e1022

Morale among ICU staff is tumbling and concerns have been expressed about a “mass exodus” as the second wave of Covid infections escalates rapidly in London and elsewhere in England.

Some doctors and nurses have already quit.

DAUK’s Rebecca Lewis reported that the government had done little to look after doctors and nurses, and that many had in effect been forced to work for 10 months without a break as a result of cancelled leave and staff shortages.

“NHS staff repeatedly warned the government against relaxing guidelines over Christmas but unfortunately these warnings were not heeded, and we are now seeing the grave consequences,”

“We are now seeing the grave consequences’ of the government relaxing restrictions”

“It is becoming more and more difficult to see how we will avoid a mass exodus of doctors and nurses after all this is over, due to the impossible mental strain working through this pandemic has put them under. Little has been done to look after and protect those who are tasked with looking after us, and we will continue to see the consequences of this even beyond the pandemic.”

The full article can be found here

And this evening, the Doctors’ Association UK – a professional association for UK medics – has issued a statement calling a full lockdown with the extended closure of schools.

In an open letter to the PM, campaign leaders said: “We believe that a further period of even tighter restrictions is essential to avert a national disaster, and call now for the implementation of a full national lockdown.”

You can read the full statement here

“Things are really, really, really bad,”

The article reports how about half of the U.K. population are currently living under Tier 4, as well as a ban on indoor socializing, and restaurants and pubs only offering takeout. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to hold a press conference at 5 p.m., where he may provide an update on the restrictions.

DAUK subsequently called for a return to lockdown prior to the Prime Minster’s announcement.

You can read the full article here.

DAUK’s Samantha Batt-Rawden, who works as a NHS critical care doctor, is quoted ‘hitting back’ at anyone suggesting health-care workers were exaggerating:

“We are incredibly thin on the ground. NHS staff have not been prioritised for the vaccine and are going off sick in droves with the new strain. Trusts are so desperate they are tweeting out for medical students to help in ICU. This was confirmed by a consultant on the ground.”

“When staff have spoken up on Twitter they have been told this is all a hoax. It’s not. Try holding an iPad for a patient to say goodbye to their family. Or having to a ventilate a colleague. This is real & happening right now. Staff are broken and need support now more than ever.”

It highlighted that health-care workers are not being prioritized for vaccines, which are largely going to the elderly and those with underlying health problems at this stage of the British government’s rollout.

Samantha wrote that many medical workers are getting sick from the new variant and that some hospitals are tweeting out messages asking for medical students to work in intensive care units.

“This is not a drill. Please believe us,”

You can read the full article here.

DAUK’s president Samantha Batt-Rawden, was asked about the new restrictions in England related to the Tier system:

“Our worry is that this has put the responsibility back onto the public instead of the Prime Minister making a brave decision to continue to protect the NHS.”

The article also reports on A+E diverts and missing test results. It can be read here.

“We are struggling for beds at the moment, the wards are pretty full…

We don’t want to get into that situation again, particularly when we have winter pressures to deal with on top of the Covid patients”

The interview can be found here.