The latest NHS figures show beds occupied by Covid patients rose from 10,658 the previous Monday. Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords, Lord Kamal, under-secretary of state for innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care, said that if the situation “gets to the point where it affects the backlog, then it is clear that measures may need to be taken measures to be introduced”. The latest official figures show that 2.7 million people in private households were estimated to have had Covid-19 last week, up 18% from 2.3 million the previous week. Lord Kamal’s comments come as health authorities in Europe recommended a second booster shot be offered to people over 60 in response to the new “extended wave”. Last week, The Independent reported how the level of staff absences is rising in NHS trusts amid rising rates of infection in the community. The number of infections has prompted an entire area of the NHS to bring back the use of masks in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. Senior NHS staff told the Independent that their hospitals were close to having to cancel scheduled surgeries last week due to absenteeism. Meanwhile, according to reports in the Health Service Journal, NHS leaders may now also seek to lower targets to reduce the surgery backlog. In an update on Monday, the European Center for Disease Control recommended that second booster shots be considered for people between the ages of 60 and 79 and those at high risk for severe disease. Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Control, said: “We are currently seeing increasing notification rates of Covid cases and an increasing trend in hospital and intensive care unit admissions and occupancy in many countries, mainly due to the BA 5 subcategory of Omicron. . “This marks the start of a new, widespread Covid wave across the European Union. There are still too many people at risk of severe Covid infection that we need to protect as soon as possible. We need to remind people of the importance of vaccination from the first shot to the second booster. We have to start today.” On Monday, pharmaceutical giant Moderna also reported that its new Omicron-specific vaccine booster showed better antibody responses to the current BA.4 and BA.5 variants driving the latest wave of Covid. The report comes as the UK awaits a decision from the government’s Vaccination and Vaccination Joint Committee on an autumn round of Covid aid. Professor Beate Kampmann, professor of pediatric infection and immunity and director of the vaccine center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “With the BA.4 and 5 Omicron variants now causing most Sars-CoV-2 infections in Europe and the US, the development and approval of variant-adapted Covid vaccines for boosters is on track. It was always a given that the first generation of these vaccines would require modifications, however, unfortunately, we are always one step behind the evolution of the virus. We eventually need to get to a place where models can predict what will happen next so we can get ahead of the curve. “Who needs a reminder when is also a bit of a moving target, as we now face a mixture of community immunity and personal protection mediated by vaccines or natural infection and likely both.”
