A major incident has been declared in London, as the COVID crisis threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the UK’s capital.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the situation is now critical amid the growing number of patients admitted with COVID-19. Khan made the emergency declaration to speed up national aid to the National Health Service (NHS), which he said was about to run out of beds.
“I declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is in crisis,” he tweeted. “One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we don’t take immediate action now, our NHS could become overwhelmed and more people will die. ”
The mayor said the virus was “out of control” in the capital and ordered Londoners to follow the rules and not to mix indoors during the weekend. The number of patients in London hospitals grew 27 percent, from 5,524 to 7,034 between December 30 and January 6, the latest data show.
The number of people on mechanical ventilators also increased 42 percent, from 640 to 908, in the week through January 6.
In the past three days alone, the NHS has announced 477 deaths in London hospitals after a positive test for COVID-19. The London Ambulance Service said it is now receiving up to 8,000 emergency calls a day, compared with 5,500 on a typical workday.
Speaking at a press conference on Downing Street, the head of the NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, admitted that there was a “material risk” that London hospitals would be overburdened for the next 21 days.
Khan believes that this could happen sooner. In a statement, he said, “Our heroic doctors, nurses and NHS staff are doing an incredible job, but with cases rising so quickly, our hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed.
“The stark reality is that we will be without beds for patients in the coming weeks, unless the spread of the virus slows dramatically.”
Getty / Dan Kitwood
One of England’s largest trusted hospitals, Bart’s NHS Trust – which runs five hospitals across the city of London and east London – revealed it had 830 Covid-19 patients on January 5, compared to a peak in the first 606 wave.
The total number of people who died after testing positive for the virus in London is now 9,123.
Meanwhile, official figures show that the UK estimated ‘R’ number has increased to 1.0-1.4, which was 1.1-1.3 previously.
The COVID R number – or the reproduction number – indicates how quickly the COVID-19 is spreading.
This means that for every 10 people with COVID-19, they transmit it to another 10-14 people, which means that the virus continues to grow.
Major incidents were previously reported during the London terrorist attacks and the fire at the Grenfell Tower in June 2017. This allows special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency response agencies.