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More than 200 members of the Armed Forces, including 40 doctors, have been deployed in the last hours to London hospitals to cover
the casualties of medical personnel, which have been triggered by the impact of
the omicron variant
and have caused the declaration of a "critical situation" in at least 20 centers of the National Health Service (NHS) in England
The number of daily cases of Covid in the United Kingdom has begun to remit this week, with 178,000 infections in the last 24 hours and 229 deaths, but the situation has worsened in hospitals due to the absence due to illness of 562,000 workers, including large number of doctors and nurses.
Only in London hospitals there have been 70,175 absences since the beginning of the year
, and 35,835 correspond to "positives" in the Covid test.
Although the number of daily hospitalizations apparently peaked at the end of the year, with a daily average of 500 patients, the situation has been complicated by the lack of personnel, which also affects hospitals in Manchester, Bath, Bristol, Norfolk and several towns from the south-west and south-east of England.
The "military assistance" was also necessary during the first and second waves of the Covid, but the situation has exploded in the last two weeks due to the high number of infections of the omicron variant.
"Omicron means there are more patients to treat and fewer staff to care for them,"
said NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis.
"In fact, more than 10,000 new workers were absent each day last week, and half of the absences were due to Covid."
The deployment of military personnel comes four days after "Prime Minister" Boris Johnson announced that the country will continue with the so-called
'Plan' B
before the Covid until January 26 and that no new restrictions will be necessary for the time being. Johnson expressed confidence that the NHS will be able to "weather" the new wave, although he warned that hospitals will remain under high pressure for the next two weeks.
Mark Drakeford, Wales' chief minister, meanwhile accused Johnson of "failing to take the necessary actions to protect people in England from Covid."
Drakeford said the
prime
minister is trapped "in political paralysis by political divisions within his cabinet and his party", in contrast to the increased restrictions imposed in recent weeks in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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