LONDON UK – COVID-19 Update – Mayor Sadiq Khan has stated, “Today I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point. One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.
“I am imploring Londoners to please stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave. Stay at home to protect yourself, your family, your friends and all other Londoners.”
The Mayor took the decision as the formal Chair of the London Resilience Forum following discussions with leaders from NHS London, local authorities, Public Health England and the emergency services in the capital.
It comes as the number of Covid-19 cases in London has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000, putting immense pressure on an already stretched NHS. Between 30 December and 6 January, the number of patients in London hospitals grew by 27 per cent (from 5,524 to 7,034) and the number on mechanical ventilation grew by 42 per cent (from 640 to 908). Over the last three days alone the NHS has announced 477 deaths in London hospitals following a positive test for Covid-19.
The 7,034 people currently in hospital with Covid-19 represents a 35 per cent increase compared to the peak of the pandemic in April. There are currently around 830 admissions to London hospital trusts per day – up from around 500 before Christmas – which could rise further over the next two weeks.
The impact is also being felt right across the emergency services with hundreds of firefighters from London Fire Brigade once again assisting London Ambulance Service by volunteering to drive ambulances as the ambulance services faces one of the busiest times in its history. Since volunteering to help in April last year, firefighters have now responded to 100,000 incidents whilst driving ambulances.
The London Ambulance Service is now taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day now, compared to 5,500 on a typical busy day.
A major incident is defined as being “beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations, and is likely to involve serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security”. In addition, “the severity of the consequences associated with a major incident are likely to constrain or complicate the ability of responders to resource and manage the incident.”
London has over 7,000 COVID-19 patients London hospitals. This is a number the is 2,000 patients greater than the peak hit last April.
There are 1,000 COVID-19 patients who are on ventilators.
“Kent Strain” of Virus Filling Hospitals
Intensive care doctors are reporting that people aged from 19 to 30 years-old are being hospitalized with the new variant of the COVID-19 virus.
An alert has been issued to critical care medical officials across Europe.
10,000 people in London tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The seven-day rate of 1,035.9 cases per 100,000 people is showing the growth of the virus in London.
9,306 Londoners have died over as a result of contracting COVID-19 within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.
