In less than a week, England will lift the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus that are still in force.
From 19 July , social gatherings will not have a limit to the number of guests, masks will no longer be mandatory in certain public spaces, and life will return to nightclubs.
With 42. 302 new cases and 49 dead per day (data from 14 July), in the streets of London and other cities in the country there is a relaxed atmosphere that does not match the rapid increase in cases illustrating the figures.
Bars, restaurants and shops, as well as the public transport system, experiment still an influx of people that had not been seen before.
However, the future looks bleak for the health workers of South Tyneside , a metropolitan district in north-east England that holds the bleak record for being the site with the most covid cases – 19 per inhabitant of the country (1. 359 cases each 100. 000 people in the week until 8/7).
“We are planning for war and begging for peace ”, Catherine Monaghan, a respiratory medicine specialist at North Tee University Hospital, who has worked without pause during the first and second waves of the pandemic, and now he faces the sad reality of a third wave.
“We are absolutely devastated, it is really difficult, I know that the whole country wants that this is over, but the reality is that is not what is happening in the hospital, “he told BBC health editor Hugh Pym.
” People are still seriously ill with covid – 19. I can’t believe we’re back at this stage, it’s really worrying, ”says Monaghan.
The staff, who are already exhausted, he says, felt very bad when it was necessary to reopen a covid room that requires the use of full personal protective equipment (PPE).
“It is understandable that nurses are really distressed by having to go through this again, having to put on full PPE, is very stressful. ”
More cases and younger
The hospital currently has 22 covid patients, five of whom are in intensive care. That’s far less than the peak in January, but the number has risen dramatically from just six in a single week.
The average age is lower than during the first two waves, and at least two of the seriously ill patients have 30 years and are not vaccinated.
North East England has seen an increase in cases: eight of the 10 current major hotspots in the UK are there.
Almost all cases nationwide involve the delta variant which began to arise in the North West of England and Glasgow (Scotland), so its propagac ion for this area of the country is not surprising.
Demographics in urban areas are similar, with inequalities in health and poverty, and underlying health conditions that make some patients are vulnerable.
The number of hospitalized patients with covid is higher than it was in early April, a trend already observed in North West England.
Health services are depleting their capacity due to high demand and there are staff who need to isolate themselves.
Difficult choices
To date, the hospital where Catherine Monaghan works continues to treat patients with other illnesses cancer, and offering non-emergency treatments.
But Chris Tulloch, Vice Chief Medical Officer of the North Tees Foundation and Hartlepool, which runs the hospital, says that since the number of cases is expected to continue to rise through August, the situation may become much more complex.
“We are coping, but I would say that we are just coping. And if things get more serious, I think it will be more difficult to handle, and we may have to make difficult decisions about what (diseases) we are going to treat, ”Tulloch tells the BBC.
“We had to stop our elective surgery program last year because we needed operating room personnel who have experience in ventilation and care of critically ill patients, to care for patients with covid ”, he explains.
Of course the hospital staff understands the desire of the people to regain part of the freedoms that were lost by confinement, but fear the consequences of removing absolutely all restrictions.
- ” Devastating ”: the scientist of l to WHO who harshly questions the massive final of the Eurocup
Their fears about the relaxation of the rules -which is already happening and which became evident with the celebration of the final of the European Championship in London- find an echo in many inside and outside the scientific community.
At the beginning of July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her concern that the large crowds gathered for the football matches of this championship could accelerate the spread of the covid – 19, and in the middle of the month the WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove emphasized in a Twitter message that the pandemic would not take a break the night of the final.
On the other hand, a group of 122 doctors and scientists sent a letter to a scientific journal The Lancet where they describe the decision of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to lift the restrictions on 19 July “dangerous and premature”.
To date, Johnson maintains that he will continue with his strategy.
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