LONDON (Reuters) – People being hospitalized with Covid-19 in the UK are generally showing fewer severe symptoms than before, the UK Vaccine Minister said on Tuesday, adding there was no need for new restrictions at this time.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resisted the idea of imposing strict lockdown measures on England before the New Year, while the Ômicron variant causes the number of cases to skyrocket to unprecedented heights.
Although hospitalizations are on the rise, they do not keep pace with daily case numbers, possibly reflecting the impact of vaccines and booster doses, the lesser severity of Ômicron, and the length of time it takes people to go to hospitals.
“At the moment, if you look at people who have been hospitalized, they are coming in with less serious conditions than before”, said the Minister for Vaccines and Public Health, Maggie Throup, to the Sky News channel, adding that the “Plan B” applied by Johnson in December was working.
“The number of people in hospital beds is about half what it was a year ago. It just shows the power of the vaccine.”
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London said that while infections in people under 50 have stabilized, the incredibly sharp rise in this age group has not yet had time to spread to older age groups, who are older. vulnerable to Covid-19.
(Report by Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout)
