A Government minister today raised the prospect of reintroducing Covid curbs if the latest spike impedes on the NHS’ ability to treat other conditions.
Health minister Lord Syed Kamall said if ‘it gets to a point where it is affecting the backlog then clearly measures may well have to be introduced’.
Individual hospitals have already started to reintroduce face masks and social distancing as Covid hospital admissions teeter on the brink of hitting an 18-month high.
There were 1,911 admissions in England on July 4 – the latest date with data – and at current pace they are due to rise further in the coming days.
If average daily admissions rise above 2,100 it will mark the highest number since the peak of the second wave in January 2021 – when there were more than 4,000.
But only a third of patients are primarily sick with Covid, which suggests rising admissions are a symptom of high infection rates rather than severe disease.
The majority (64 per cent) are known as ‘incidental’…
