Hospitals will NOT fall into another Covid crisis and ‘frontline will fight Omicron chaos, NHS chiefs say

HOSPITAL WILL NOT be dragged into another Covid crisis and the “frontline will hold out” against the chaos of Omicron, NHS directors have said.

Experts are increasingly optimistic Covid is nearing its peak in the UK and hopefully NHS services across much of the country can cope.

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In London, where Omicron rose for the first time, hospital admissions are now down 17% year-on-year and the rotation average has fallen over the past seven days, Time report.

That’s because a string of extremely aggressive studies show Omicron IS to be milder than other strains, with the first official UK report showing a 50 to 70 per cent lower risk of hospitalization compared to Delta.

Health officials have repeatedly said the Covid booster shots protect against Omicron and offer the best chance of weathering the pandemic.

The Sun’s Jabs Army campaign is helping to get key additional vaccines in British arms to avoid the need for any new restrictions.

And Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said he believed “the frontline of the health service will remain”.

The latest figures show the capital has 3,867 hospitalized Covid-19 patients – nearly half of the peak figure in January.

It comes despite pre-Christmas modeling showing enrollments could far exceed last January’s peak without restrictions.

Official records show that as of 8 January, daily infections began to decline in the South East, East of England and in London.

Cases are still increasing in all other regions, but at a much slower rate than in the past.

And Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, Director of the Winton Center for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, told Times Radio “certainly we won’t see a huge increase in the number of intensive care hospital admissions. and deaths and really serious outcomes.”

Currently, the number of daily hospitalizations stands at around 2,000, with Prof Spiegelhalter predicting they could be below 3,000 – three-quarters of last year’s peak.

It comes as new Covid cases in the UK fell for the fifth day in a row, with 141,472 infections recorded on Sunday.

The number of Covid patients on ventilators in the UK also fell to its lowest level since October – although experts say there could be around half a million infections a day.

However, concerns are now focused on the north, with Professor Hopson saying some hospitals have faced “three storms” of Covid hospitalizations, staff absenteeism and other problems. to bring the patient to the care home.

He told the BBC though that health services “would be dangerously stretched. . . one of the great advantages of being a National Health Service [is that] Trust can help each other. So I think the front line will be held.”

Meanwhile, the Education Minister the number of hospitals declare serious incidents that have been disclosed so that they can be compared with pre-pandemic.

He explained that of the more than 130 trust hospitals, 24 have declared serious incidents compared with 23 in 2017/2018.