Field hospitals that were built in the early days of the pandemic, but which then collided, are reactivated.
British medics warned on Friday that hospitals across the country are facing a dangerous few weeks amid emerging new coronavirus infections blaming a new variant of the virus.
A day after the UK recorded 55,892 new infections and another 964 coronavirus-related deaths, there are concerns about the impact on the sprawling National Health Service (NHS).
Field hospitals that were built in the early days of the pandemic, but which then collided, are reactivated.
Mike Adams, director of the Royal College of Nursing, England, told Sky News that the UK was in the “eye of the storm” and that it was “furious” to see people not following the social leadership or masks do not wear.
A leading doctor also warned of burnout among health workers at the forefront of the outbreak in hospitals, while also urging people to follow the rules.
“I’m worried,” Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC. “We’re at a lot of fighting stations.”
New infections have more than doubled in recent weeks after a new variant, which is said to be about 70 per cent more contagious, was behind a large increase in cases around London and south-east England.
Given the backlog between new cases and hospitalizations and subsequent deaths, there is widespread concern about the path of the pandemic over the next month or two in a country with Europe’s second highest virus-related death toll at nearly 74,000.
As a result of the rise, which has spread across the country and the restrictions on closure have been seen, the strategy around vaccine deployment has changed to get more people an initial jab as soon as possible, with a scheduled second one that be delayed.
In a joint statement on Thursday, chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the first dose of vaccine provided substantial protection.
Two vaccines are currently approved for use in the UK.
Just under one million people received the first dose of the vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech, with a small minority receiving the second dose after 21 days.
In addition to the approval earlier this week of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, a new dosing regimen has been set out aimed at providing faster implementation. This means that the second dose of both vaccines will be within 12 weeks after the first vaccine.
The four medical officers said they were confident that the first dose of both vaccines would provide significant protection.
‘In the short term, the additional increase in vaccination of the vaccine from the second dose is likely to be modest; the vast majority of initial clinical disease protection is after the first dose of vaccination, ”they said.
The new plan has faced widespread criticism, with the UK’s largest union for doctors warning that the delay in the second dose is causing major problems for thousands of elderly and vulnerable people who have been partially vaccinated.
“It is extremely unfair to tens of thousands of our patients at greatest risk to now try to reschedule their appointments,” said Richard Vautrey of the British Medical Association.