If the number of hospitalizations increases, this does not overwhelm the health system at this stage. Boris Johnson will not announce other restrictions before the new year.
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While the United Kingdom was the first European country affected by Omicron – the first case detected dates back to November 28 – it is scrutinized by all public health specialists. With a new variant that is both more contagious, but apparently cause less severe forms of the disease, one of the main tests is whether British hospitals will be submerged.
For the moment, the first signs seem encouraging. “It’s okay, it’s nothing compared to the previous waves,” says a anesthetist doctor from a hospital from southern London, who requires anonymity. “This is no longer the same disease,” said the BBC John Bell, Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, very involved in the development of the Astrazeneca vaccine. The horrible scenes last year – intensive care who are full, many people who die prematurely – are old history. “Paul Hunter, Professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia, makes the same diagnosis, although a little more cautiously:” Nobody knows with certainty if hospitals will be overwhelmed by the wave, but I would tend to think that it will not be the case. “
The first national statistics – incomplete in this holiday season, where surveys are sometimes compiled late – are rather reassuring, showing a break between the number of positive cases and hospitalizations. Wednesday, December 29, the United Kingdom has recorded 183,000 positive cases over the last twenty-four hours, by far its highest level since the beginning of the Pandemic of Covid-19. Seven days, the daily average is 130,000 cases, two and a half times more than during the peak of the Delta wave of January. But hospitalizations are for the moment three to four times less, with 10,400 patients in England, compared to 34,000 in January. Even in London, from which is part of the wave, hospitals hold the shock: they are currently dealing with 3,300 patients, far from the 7,800 of January. “In absolute terms, the levels remain relatively low,” says Bell.
“Incident Admissions”
These numbers may also give a distorted image of reality. “Many patients going to the hospital have COVID, but are not because of COVID, explains Chris Hopson, the NHS Providers Director, the organization that represents English hospitals. We have a lot of people Which, for example, have fallen from bike and broke an arm or bang his head. They have no symptoms but, upon arrival, they do a positive Covid test. “
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