Hospitals swamped, UK mulls moving patients into hotels

A patient is taken from an ambulance by staff at the Royal Free Hospital in London on January 11. Pic/AFP

England's health care system may move patients into hotels to ease pressure on hospitals struggling to handle rising COVID-19 admissions. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday that the National Health Service was looking at various ways to reduce the strain on hospitals, including moving patients to hotels when appropriate. Discussions about the issue were first reported by the Guardian newspaper.

"We would only ever do that if it was clinically the right thing for somebody,"Hancock told Sky News. "In some cases, people need sit-down care, they don't actually need to be in a hospital bed." Britain already has Europe's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with over 83,000 deaths, and the number of hospital beds filled by COVID-19 patients is still rising. Hospitals in England are now treating 55% more COVID-19 cases than during the first peak of the pandemic in April.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus mutation first found in Britain has now spread to 50 territories, said the World Health Organization, while a similar South African-identified strain has now been found in 20. "The more the SARS-CoV-2 spreads, the more opportunities it has to change. High levels of transmission mean that we should expect more variants to emerge," said the WHO. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus which causes COVID-19.

Japan expands virus emergency
Japan on Wednesday expanded a coronavirus state of emergency for seven more prefectures starting Thursday and lasting until February 7. Prime Minister Yoshide Suga said Japan will suspend fast-track entry exceptions for business visitors or others with residency permits, fully banning foreign visitors till state of emergency ends.

Mass testing in China, Dutch cities
On Wednesday, millions of people lined to receive a second round of tests in Shijiazhuang city that is at the heart of China's most serious recent outbreak.
Residents of a Dutch town, Bergschenhoek, filed into a sports hall to take part in the country's first mass testing program, which aims to find out more about the spread of a new more transmissible variant.

President Joko Widodo was the first to get the COVID jab. PIC/AFP

Indonesia starts mass vaccination
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday received the first shot of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine after Indonesia approved it for emergency use and began efforts to inoculate millions of people in the country. After Widodo, top military, police and medical officials were vaccinated.

3,46,983
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

9,17,17,877
Total no. of cases worldwide

19,65,238
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins