UK Bracing for Huge COVID Wave As New Mutant Strain Keeps Spreading

The mutant coronavirus strain was first detected in the South East before Christmas and has been found to be 70% more transmissible.

It has since been driving up new infection rates, putting the NHS on the brink of being overwhelmed, Yahoo news reported.

Several London hospitals like UCH and the Royal London have issued desperate pleas for more staff in the last 24 hours as COVID wards fill up rapidly.

Yesterday, NHS England said a further 420 deaths in the UK were reported and 50,668 cases were confirmed.

Meanwhile, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned that COVID vaccine shortages “will last for months” despite the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine improving supply issues.

Now several experts and public officials are warning that the North will be hit hard by the surging COVID wave in the coming weeks.

Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said she feared the added pressures being seen at London hospitals in dealing with the volume of coronavirus patients had started to spread across the country.

Asked whether the problems were becoming more "widespread", she told BBC Radio 4's Today program: "That's what appears to be happening.

Professor Dominic Harrison, director of Public Health for Blackburn with Darwen council also warned another wave is set to hit the North of England.

He wrote in the Lancashire Telegraph: “It now looks certain that we will see a third wave of COVID-19 – probably peaking in early February.

He continued: “The third wave and the new COVID variant are travelling fast. … We can expect these rises in confirmed cases to generate rapidly rising hospital admissions over the coming weeks and East Lancashire Hospitals Trust is already under significant pressure on both staff and beds."

Professor Jim Naismith from Oxford University told media outlets that tougher lockdown measures are needed as the next few weeks are expected to be "nail-bitingly difficult".

Data from NHS England shows that, in the final week of December, there were 828 more patients in ICUs across England than in the same week last year.