Almost 50,000 infections yesterday, over 200 deaths today, at the peak since March although burdened by the recovery of part of the statistical delays of the weekend: there is a new Covid alarm in the United Kingdom, where the hospitalization curve remains within the warning level for now, but the free all of these months returns to discuss. All the more in view of a winter that - thanks to the slowdown of an initially record-breaking vaccination campaign and certain extra-pandemic structural hitches of the national health service (NHS) - threatens to prove to be "challenging" again, as sources of the same government admit euphemistically Tory. While, in order not to miss anything, the shadow of yet another sub-variant of the coronavirus also hovers.
The impact of the infection currently remains "under control" thanks to vaccines, despite the recent surge in new cases, Johnson told the cabinet today. Not without recognizing, however, that it is necessary to give new impetus to "vaccination programs": both towards that 20% of the population that has not yet immunized even though it can do so; and with the acceleration of the third dose promised to the vulnerable and all over 50.
Johnson stressed that the curve of admissions for Covid in British hospitals remains "substantially flat".
While a spokesman for Downing Street reiterated that the government keeps "under close observation" the data on the rebound of infections (which is increasing in particular among school students); but he specified that any "plan B", with hypothetical reintroduction of some restrictions in the cold season, will not be taken into consideration unless the pressure on the NHS hospitals rises again to the "unsustainable levels" of the previous waves of the pandemic.
Reassurances that seem to satisfy the bulk of public opinion, in a country that has always been recalcitrant in the face of any caution - masks in the first place - and apparently anything but eager to see the substantial revocation of any restriction on individual freedom risky by the Johnson government since July 19. While the latest weekly statistic on deaths in England and Wales signals at least a 15% slowdown in mid-October, to a minimum since early September. An element that, on the other hand, does not reassure Anthony Costello, a former British executive of the World Health Organization (WHO), very polemical towards BoJo and his scientific consultants,according to whose calculations the United Kingdom is now in first place in the world for the ratio of daily infections to the population. Although at the same time it remains one of the countries with the lowest death rate in proportion to the cases surveyed, as evidenced by the difference with Russia: second in Europe for infections, but with a share of those vaccinated that still does not exceed a third of the population against 80% British, and where there is an average of deaths almost 10 times higher than the island (today over 1000, absolute ceiling), with Vladimir Putin's administration forced to return to announce forms of lockdown. In Moscow, for example, those over 60 who are not vaccinated and the frail will have to stay at home.as evidenced by the difference with Russia: second in Europe for infections, but with a quota of vaccinated people that still does not exceed a third of the population against 80% of the British, and where there is an average of deaths almost 10 times higher than the island (now over 1000, absolute ceiling), with Vladimir Putin's administration forced to return to announce forms of lockdown. In Moscow, for example, those over 60 who are not vaccinated and the frail will have to stay at home.as evidenced by the difference with Russia: second in Europe for infections, but with a quota of vaccinated people that still does not exceed a third of the population against 80% of the British, and where there is an average of deaths almost 10 times higher than the island (now over 1000, absolute ceiling), with Vladimir Putin's administration forced to return to announce forms of lockdown. In Moscow, for example, those over 60 who are not vaccinated and the frail will have to stay at home.Vladimir Putin's administration forced to return to announce forms of lockdown. In Moscow, for example, those over 60 who are not vaccinated and the frail will have to stay at home.Vladimir Putin's administration forced to return to announce forms of lockdown. In Moscow, for example, those over 60 who are not vaccinated and the frail will have to stay at home.
In the background,
a new mutation of the Delta variant
emerges
, called 'AY.4.2' and indicated by British specialists as potentially more transmissible by a further 10%
, although apparently not destined for the moment to prevail over the original stock.
While the trend of a new increase in infections linked to the approach of the winter season is also starting to peep out in other European countries - protected on paper by some more caution than the United Kingdom - such as France.
Where just today the government admitted that the epidemic has started to "gain ground".
The situation in the east is even more serious, where many countries are grappling with a number of new infections at the highest for months and, in some cases, even record deaths.
With Latvia forced to return to lockdown and curfew until 15 November.
