More coronavirus patients in hospital now than at start of first lockdown, officials say

Hospitals in England now have more coronavirus patients than they did when lockdown restrictions were first announced in March, a senior NHS official has revealed.

And with admissions rising, numbers of Covid-19 patients in the worst-hit region of the northwest could within four weeks top the levels seen during the peak of the first wave in the spring.

The medical director of NHS England, Prof Stephen Powis, said that without additional measures to control the spread of the disease, deaths would rise to a level “too great to bear”.

Prof Powis dismissed as “wishful thinking” claims that elderly and vulnerable people could be shielded from the rising rates of infection among the younger population.

Details of the surge in infections were revealed as NHS Nightingale hospitals in Manchester, Sunderland and Harrogate were ordered to mobilise to prepare for a second wave of patients overwhelming NHS capacity in the north of England.

It came as Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee ahead of today’s announcement of a new three-tier system of restrictions, expected to include the closure of pubs and bars in the worst-hit parts of the country.

England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said that increased hospital admissions and deaths were now “baked in” because of sharp rises in infections over the past weeks.

At a televised briefing from Number 10 Downing Street, Prof Powis announced that, as well as mobilising the extra capacity of the three Nightingale temporary field hospitals, the NHS was also introducing regular tests for staff in high-risk areas, even if they do not have Covid-19 symptoms.

“As the infection rate has begun to grow across the country, hospital infections have started to rise,” said Prof Powis.

“It is clear that hospital admissions are rising fastest in those areas of the country where infection rates are highest, particularly the northwest.

“In the over-65s – particularly the over-85s – we are seeing steep rises in the numbers of people being admitted to hospital so the claim that the elderly can somehow be fenced off from risk is wishful thinking.”

With no cure or vaccine yet available for Covid-19, Prof Powis said: “Sadly, as the number of those infected increases, then so will the number of people who die.

“And that’s why the government is looking at what other measures could be introduced in the areas where infection is rising the most.

“As the secretary of state for health has said, if we do not take measures to control the spread of the virus the death toll will be too great to bear.”

Prof Van-Tam said that hospitalisations lag behind infections by about three weeks and deaths occur some time after that, because of the way the disease develops.

“The hospital admissions we have now actually relate to a time when there fewer cases of Covid-19,” he said.

“Already, with the cases that we know about, we have baked in additional hospital admissions and sadly we also have baked in additional deaths that are now consequent upon infections that have already happened.”

Prof Van-Tam said it was of “concern” that coronavirus was “heating up” in more parts of England than a week ago.

And he warned that coronavirus was spreading from younger age groups into those aged over 60.

“There is the spread from those younger age groups into the 60-plus age group in the northwest and the northeast, and there are rates of change in the same places but also extending a little further south,” he said.

“And this is again of significant concern … because of course the elderly suffer a much worse course with Covid-19. They are admitted to hospital for longer periods, and they are more difficult to save.”