The uplift of the lockdown restrictions that had been in place in the UK for quite some time is going to be causing a lot of problems in terms of the coronavirus spread in the UK, according to the health minister. There is definitely going to be an increase in the number of cases per day, and it will be a lot.
UK health minister Sajid Javid said coronavirus cases could rise to 100,000 per day after restrictions in England are lifted on 19 July. The UK recorded an average of 25,447 new cases per day in the seven days up to 2 July.
Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that thanks to the “huge wall of defense” provided by the covid-19 vaccination program, covid-19 deaths are currently only one-thirtieth of those the last time daily cases were around 25,000 per day.
The only thing that can provide some protection to the people is the vaccine. That too, only for the people that have taken a second dose. The complete vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic. People who are not yet vaccinated need to get that soon.
Nevertheless, Azra Ghani at Imperial College London said in a statement that “current trends in hospital admissions, if extrapolated, could put a severe strain on the NHS”. Other scientists, such as Christina Pagel at University College London, have expressed concerns about the risks of long covid.
“The hospital no longer has rooms for patients who need ventilators. The ICU [intensive care unit] rooms are also full,” a spokesperson for a hospital in the city of Surabaya told the AFP news agency.
Health Care is “Very, Very Busy Indeed
The national medical director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, has stated that the health care is “very, very busy indeed,” but that there is no set threshold of COVID hospital admissions that would need new actions.
At the press conference, he said, “What’s happening in one area of the country might not be happening in another part of the country.”
This kind of volatility has been common during the pandemic’s first 18 months, and it’s probable that it may happen again.
Final Words
The chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, Dr. Jenny Harries, reported that the number of COVID cases in the country was “very high” heading into the winter.
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of reported cases since July, and they are now virtually at the same level as they were during the winter of 2017–2018, she said.
We are starting the winter at a pretty high level of cases, so it is particularly encouraging that we are not seeing the typical decrease down again after the peak.
The good news is that this is not yet resulting in catastrophic illness and mortality.
