By Vaccine will only have a ‘marginal impact’ on NHS winter strain, Chief Medical Officer warns
COVID-19 will keep hospitals under continued strain in the coming months as new vaccines will only have a “marginal impact” on patient numbers over winter, the UK’s chief medical officers have warned.
In a letter written to healthcare colleagues, the group – which includes England’s Professor Chris Whitty – also said that festive gatherings were likely to put additional pressure on the NHS.
“The social mixing which occurs around Christmas may well put additional pressure on hospitals and general practice in the New Year and we need to be ready for that”.
“Winter is always a challenging time for the NHS and wider health and social care service”.
“This year will be especially hard due to COVID-19”. it read.
“Although the very welcome news about vaccines means that we can look forward to 2021 with greater optimism, vaccine deployment will have only a marginal impact in reducing numbers coming into the health service with COVID over the next three months”.
The letter also stated that while recent lockdowns in all four nations and public adherence to social distancing and other measures had helped slow the spread, hospital admissions and deaths would likely remain high before the spring.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned the public not to allow encouraging headlines about the pandemic, including Friday’s news that the UK’s R number had seemingly dropped, to make them complacent.
