LONDON, 28 June. - (ANA) - Hospital beds taken up by Covid patients have surged by 37 per cent, as experts warn the United Kingdom (UK) has entered its fifth wave.

 

The number of Covid positive patients in hospitals across England has jumped to 7,822 – up by more than 2,000 in a week.

 

As of Monday, the number of patients in critical care jumped to 192 – up from 150 the week prior, according to NHS data.

 

The figures come as experts warned the National Health Service (NHS) could be overwhelmed.

 

Professor Tim Spector, of the ZOE Covid symptom study app, told The Independent: “We’re in a wave at the moment ... heading towards a quarter of a million cases a day, that’s a wave already...“Having our NHS, which is already on its knees, working like it’s in the middle of winter, we’re getting up to 1,000 hospitalisations a day now, it’s not good news, that figure is going to go up.”

 

The increase in Covid patients across hospitals comes amid wider pressures on NHS beds, such as delayed discharges, which are driving record waits in A&E.

 

Cases of Covid in the community have increased sharply in recent weeks, with figures last week showing 1.7 million people testing positive across the UK, a 23 per cent increase on the week before. The increase is being driven by the recent BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron.

 

Prof Spector warned large summer events such as Glastonbury and Notting Hill Carnival could have a big effect on Covid rates.

 

According to an analysis by John Roberts, a Covid-19 data expert from the Covid Actuaries Response Group, weekly growth rate for admissions reached 40 per cent on Monday, compared to a 30 per cent growth last week.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/28 June 2022 — - -