London, December 30 On the 29th, the number of new coronavirus infections in the United Kingdom exceeded the 50,000 mark in a single day, reaching 53,135, setting a record high again.
British experts call on the government to take stricter epidemic blockade measures immediately.
Before Christmas, the British government took a series of urgent actions to upgrade London and southeastern England to a level 4 epidemic blockade, but after Christmas, the UK still ushered in another peak of the epidemic.
What’s more worrying is that the number of new confirmed cases is soaring, and the number of hospitalized patients peaks again, leaving the NHS “under pressure to collapse”.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS in England, said that the number of COVID-19 patients currently being treated at NHS hospitals in the England region is 20,426, which has exceeded the peak of 18,974 people in the first wave of the epidemic on April 12, and medical staff ” Once again, it is deep in the center of the eye of the storm.
NHS health officials in Wales and Scotland also said that the local health system was at risk of “immediately overwhelmed”.
Andrew Hayward, a member of the British Government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Emergency Response (SAGE), a professor at University College London, said that the infectivity of the new mutant strains has increased by 50%, which means that epidemic restrictions that used to work may now be invalidated, calling for The government has decisively taken stricter national action to avoid the epidemic getting out of control in January and February next year.
Neil Ferguson, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial University of Technology, pointed out that the new mutant strains are more capable of transmitting to human adolescents, and primary and secondary school students have become new high-risk infection groups and sources of transmission.
Experts point out that millions of students returning to school next week after Christmas will further aggravate the spread of the novel coronavirus and endanger the safety of faculty, staff and the public.
In this new epidemic, the government must close all schools to curb the spread of mutant strains.
The British Teachers’ Union has been making intensive calls for days to the government to postpone the opening of primary and secondary schools.
Gavin Williamson, the British Secretary of State for Education, held an emergency meeting with the British Union of Principals and Teachers on the 28th, and held a heated discussion on delaying the reopening of schools by two weeks.
Michael Gove, the British Cabinet Secretary of Staff, said on the same day that all primary school students, students in grades 11 and 13, and secondary school students whose parents are key jobs need to return to school on time after the holiday holiday.
SAGE experts suggest that all schools should completely switch to online teaching in January next year, which is the only way to reduce the infection rate.
