Ambulances outside Kings College Hospital on December 29 2020 in London, England. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/PETER SUMMERS
People living in London, Essex and Kent should behave as if they have Covid-19, health secretary Matt Hancock said in an interview with LBC radio on Wednesday. His comments come amid growing fears the National Health Service is at risk of being overwhelmed after the UK reported more than 50,000 new cases on Tuesday, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic. The number of people being treated in the hospital for the coronavirus already exceeds the peak recorded during the first wave of infections in spring.
A widening of measures will hurt growth and increase the possibility of the UK officially entering a double-dip recession in the first quarter of 2021. Earlier national lockdown measures pushed the economy into its deepest recession since the Great Frost of 1709.Hancock said he’s confident the country will be out of the crisis by spring 2021. The arrival of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which will begin rollout in hospitals from January 4, will speed up the national recovery, he said.