London hit with nearly 60,000 Covid cases in a week – as hospital admissions top 1,100

ONDON has been hit with nearly 60,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in a week, official figures reveal today.

As the crisis escalates, more than 1,100 coronavirus patients were admitted to London hospitals in just three days to December 19.

Some hospitals including St George’s in Tooting, south west London, the Royal Free in Camden, Barts Health which runs several hospitals in east London, and Barking, Havering and Redbridge trust, have already been forced to start postponing operations due to Covid pressures.

Hospitalisations are set to rise further as they tend to follow the trend in cases by a few weeks.

An NHS London spokesperson said: “Covid inpatient numbers across the capital are currently below the peak that London saw in the April first wave, but they are sharply on the rise as infections across the capital have continued to spike.

“So although we are opening extra capacity, it is vital that Londoners do everything possible to reduce social transmission and cut the number of new infections, which otherwise inevitably result in more avoidable deaths.”

Doctors are now far more experienced at treating coronavirus patients, and have better medicines, so the mortality rate is significantly lower.

However, the huge rise in cases recently will lead to more fatalities.

The seven-day rate of new cases per 100,000 people soared to 643.6 in the week to December 18.

The number of confirmed cases rose to 59,604 in the week to December 20 and 9,873 cases were announced yesterday.

The north east of the city has been hardest hit but the virus is spreading fast in many boroughs, particularly in inner London.

It came as the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 in England has continued to increase, according to the latest infection survey from the Office for National Statistics.

An estimated 645,800 people in private households in England had Covid-19 between December 12 and 18 – the equivalent of around 1.18% of the population, or one in 85 people.

It represents a rise from 567,300 people, or one in 95, who were estimated to have Covid-19 in the period December 6 to 12.

The figures do not include people staying in hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.

Millions more people will be under the toughest coronavirus restrictions from Boxing Day as the new strain VUi202012/01 spreads across the country.

Areas moving to Tier 4 from Boxing Day are: Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, those parts of Essex not yet in Tier 4, Waverley in Surrey and Hampshire – including Portsmouth and Southampton but with the exception of the New Forest.

Tier 4 restrictions include a stay-at-home instruction, apart from for some exemptions like work, healthcare, exercise or visting a bubble, a limit on household mixing to two people outdoors, and the closure of many shops, hairdressers and gyms.

The measures come on top of Tier 3 restrictions such as the closure of pubs and restaurants except for takeaways and deliveries.

Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset including the North Somerset council area, Swindon, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest and Northamptonshire as well as Cheshire and Warrington will all be escalated to Tier 3.

Cornwall and Herefordshire move from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

The changes mean 24 million people will now be in Tier 4, or 43 per cents of the population of England.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK’s variant coronavirus was spreading at a “dangerous rate”.

Official figures yesterday showed a further 744 people were reported to have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, the highest such figure since April 29 during the first peak of the virus.

There were a further 39,237 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Wednesday, the highest figure reported on a single day throughout the whole pandemic – although this is in part due to much wider testing.

Mr Hancock also revealed that a second mutant strain, from South Africa, had arrived in the UK, with two confirmed cases.

He warned that the “highly concerning” new variant is believed to be more transmissible than the mutant strain that led to the new Tier 4 restrictions.

It is reported to be behind a surge in cases in South Africa, and has been discovered in two people in the UK thought to be contacts of those who travelled between the two countries in the last few weeks.

From 9am on Christmas Eve, visitors arriving into England who have been in or travelled through South Africa in the previous 10 days will not be permitted entry and direct flights will be banned, the Department for Transport said.

The ban excludes cargo and freight without passengers, and also does not include British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents, who will be able to enter but are required to self-isolate for 10 days along with their household.

Any exemptions usually in place, including for those related to employment, will not apply and passengers arriving in England from South Africa after 9pm on Wednesday cannot be released from self-isolation through Test to Release.