{"id":619,"date":"2020-12-29T20:24:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T20:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-in-the-new-york-times-u-k-virus-surge-surpasses-spring-peak-as-lockdown-choices-loom\/"},"modified":"2020-12-29T20:24:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T20:24:43","slug":"dauk-in-the-new-york-times-u-k-virus-surge-surpasses-spring-peak-as-lockdown-choices-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-in-the-new-york-times-u-k-virus-surge-surpasses-spring-peak-as-lockdown-choices-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK in the New York Times: U.K. Virus Surge Surpasses Spring Peak as Lockdown Choices Loom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Health care workers are exhausted, with little time to recuperate. Staff sickness has reached critical levels. The requirements on the use of protective gear have not yet been reviewed in light of the new strain and may be playing a part in frontline workers contracting the virus.\u00a0The country\u2019s vaccination rollout needs to be stepped up, and in addition to the elderly and the vulnerable, vaccinating doctors must be a priority.\u00a0[When it comes to the immediate to mid-term future for the country and its infection rates] we know that mid-January is going to be awful.<\/p>Dr Rebecca Lewis, DAUK Secretary<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

About half of\u00a0England is under the nation\u2019s strictest lockdown<\/a>\u00a0measures, and people have been ordered to stay at home, but the coronavirus is still spreading at an alarming rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospitals are treating more patients than at any time during the pandemic, the number of new infections has set a daily record, and there is a growing debate about allowing tens of thousands of students to return to classrooms after the holiday break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nation\u2019s scientists have said that an apparently more\u00a0contagious variant<\/a>\u00a0of the virus is driving the rise in cases and, with severe restrictions already imposed on more than 48 million people, it remains unclear what other tools the government has at its disposal to get the outbreak under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 53,135 new\u00a0lab-confirmed cases reported on\u00a0<\/a>Tuesday, the highest figure yet on a single day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Health Service said there were now over 20,000 people in English hospitals, more than at the peak of the pandemic in April.\u00a0With the government scheduled to meet to evaluate its restrictions on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to impose another national lockdown and move students \u2014 especially older ones in colleges and secondary schools,\u00a0who may be more easily infected by the new virus variant<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to remote learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Rebecca Lewis, a surgeon working in a London hospital and the secretary of the\u00a0Doctors\u2019 Association<\/a>, described how health care workers are exhausted, with little time to recuperate. Staff sickness, she said, has reached critical levels. The requirements on the use of protective gear have not yet been reviewed in light of the new strain, she said, and may be playing a part in frontline workers contracting the virus.\u00a0The country\u2019s vaccination rollout needs to be stepped up, Dr. Lewis said on Tuesday, adding that in addition to the elderly and the vulnerable, vaccinating doctors must be a priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Lewis said she expects worse days ahead.\u00a0\u201cWe know that mid-January is going to be awful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health care workers are exhausted, with little time to recuperate. Staff sickness has reached critical levels. The requirements on the use of protective gear have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,29,58],"tags":[52,44,38,355,34,356,42],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-protectthefrontline","tag-covid-19","tag-dauk","tag-new-york-times","tag-press-covid-19","tag-rebecca-lewis","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}