Now I have been sent the published back up data for the Friday graphs shown at the news conference, I thought I should just highlight the current situation.
Yesterday’s figures for hospital beds occupied by CV19 patients showed a small decline, thanks to London’s graph falling a bit where the most cases are still concentrated. Current patient numbers at 20 204 remain high. 3335 patients are in intensive care.
These are high numbers which we all want to come down. They do impose a big strain on the staff having to handle this unpleasant disease, which is unrelenting at this level. They do, however, show the UK is still currently well within the enhanced capacity of the NHS to cope with the crisis. As part of the aim of policy was to avoid an unsustainable peak demand on the NHS, it is encouraging so far to see these numbers and to see the recent levelling off. Of course we hope to see this being maintained with no dangerous relapse to a steep climb in hospital cases. The NHS handling these volumes will inevitably limit other non urgent work taking place.
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