Covid: Mayor of London sounds the alarm and declares a "major incident" state
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, declared on Friday a state of "major incident", involving a coordinated response from the public services.
REUTERS / Toby Melville
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Hospitals are threatened with being "overwhelmed" in London: the mayor of the British capital, Sadiq Khan, declared Friday a state of "major incident", while the new coronavirus is "out of control".
The latest figures indicate that 1,325 people have died of Covid in the last 24 hours, unheard of since the start of the pandemic, bringing the death toll in the United Kingdom to nearly 80,000.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in London,
Muriel Delcroix
“
The situation in London is now critical and we will run out of hospital beds in the next two weeks if the spread of the virus is not drastically stopped.
This is the call for help from the mayor of the capital when more than 7,000 people are currently hospitalized with the Covid, or 35% more than at the height of the first wave in April.
The National Statistics Office estimated a few days ago that one in 30 Londoners was infected, a figure which, according to Sadiq Khan, is now 1 in 20 in some parts of London.
Hence his decision to declare a “
major incident
” as the regions of Sussex and Surrey had already done on Thursday.
The latest incidents of this type date back to the terrorist attacks in Westminster and London Bridge and the fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017. States of emergency that require the rapid and coordinated intervention of public services.
At the same time, Sadiq Khan, who "
implores
" the inhabitants of the capital to stay at home, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking him to make the wearing of masks compulsory in all public places and to increase financial support for Londoners. who have to confine themselves and cannot go to work.
►
To read also: Covid-19: Boris Johnson announces a strict containment of all England
Our selection on the coronavirus
•
Our
explanations
→
What are the persistent symptoms of Covid-19?
→
Covid-19: how is the effectiveness of a vaccine calculated and other scientific news
→
For Professor Axel Kahn,
"we must oppose the Coronavirus" an extremely vigorous strategy "
→
The mourning of a loved one during Covid period
•
How to make a mask and use it well
•
See also the
records
of
RFI Knowledge
on Covid-19
→
Birth of a pandemic
→
Daily proof
→
The history of epidemics
→
Science facing Covid-19
→
The geopolitical consequences
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
United Kingdom
Coronavirus
Health and medicine
On the same subject
Covid-19: Boris Johnson announces strict containment of all of England
Covid-19: United Kingdom announces new business aid plan
UK begins second vaccination campaign with AstraZeneca vaccine