UK must be ready to introduce rapid Covid brakes, says NHS chief | Omicron variant

Boris Johnson must be prepared to restrict social mix to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by an increase in Covid cases caused by Omicron, a senior NHS official said.

The rapid spread of the new variant means that the Prime Minister may have to introduce “tighter restrictions, at real speed” to reduce the number of people who fall ill with Covid.

But any new restrictions would take two weeks to reduce the number of people requiring hospital care, added Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Suppliers.

His comments came as a leading scientist predicted that the sharp rise in Covid infections seen in recent days means the NHS will be overwhelmed “fairly quickly”.

Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats (Nervtag), warned that exposure to just “an infected breath” could lead to catching the disease. Omicron variant.

He also said that mingle during New Years celebrations may well lead to a further increase in the number of people testing positive.

Hopson said hospital heads understood the government had set “a high threshold” for the pressure the NHS would have to take from Covid before tightening the rules.

“Trusted leaders can see why the government is arguing that in the absence of an influx of large numbers of critically ill elderly people to hospital, that threshold has yet to be crossed,” Hopson said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

“But we still don’t know if that increase will come. Indeed, the NHS is preparing for it at the moment, ”he added. Eight hospitals in England have started creating their own on-site “mini-nightingales” to help treat patients at “super-surge” capacity.

Hopson added: “So we are in the same place where we have been for the last fortnight. The government must be prepared to introduce more stringent restrictions, at real speed, if necessary.

“It’s somewhat different from suggestions that NHS leaders think there is no need for more curbs. They may be needed, at the rate, if the evidence warrants it. “

He was responding to a report in The Times on Friday, titled ‘No More Covid Brakes Needed, NHS Chiefs Say’, which said hospital bosses did not believe further measures were needed.

Hopson also said: “It is also worth remembering that it will take around a fortnight for further restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions. The schedule for hospital admissions over the next fifteen weeks has therefore already been set. “

Referring to the recent huge spike in infections, which resulted in a record 189,213 cases yesterday, Openshaw told BBC Breakfast: “The latest figures show extraordinary increases in infection rates and that’s before we had time to see the full effect of what happened at Christmas.

“The people currently who are very sadly dying from Covid were probably infected on average about 35 days ago, so that was really before Omicron really started transmitting.

“So it is too early to say what impact Omicron will have on a more serious disease.”

But he warned that hospital admissions due to Covid could increase in the coming weeks as more elderly people and those not fully vaccinated would be infected.

“It has mainly circulated among children, among people in contact with children, and it will now spread to older people at much higher risk of serious illness and to those with pre-existing conditions.

“I’m very, very happy that the overwhelming majority of them have been triple vaccinated because it gives you very good levels of protection, certainly probably not for good, but at least for a while.

“But there are of course quite a number of people who have not been vaccinated at all, for various reasons, and it is this older, more susceptible population that has not been vaccinated that is of great concern to us.” , Openshaw added.

“We have had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution. It ended up being so contagious that it almost only needs a puff of infected breath and you could get infected. “