The latest NHS figures for Covid hospital admissions show the number of positive patients in hospital rose by 37 per cent on Monday to 10,658, from 7,822 the previous week. The data comes after health officials warned that the UK could face a triple threat from Covid, flu and monkeypox in the coming months. Scientists have called for Covid vaccines to be urgently updated to target new variants as infection rates soared to near-record levels. NHS figures released on Monday showed the number of new admissions rose to 1,374 on July 2, up from 1,276 the previous week. The average number of daily admissions over seven days also rose by 32 percent each week, the data showed. The number of Covid-positive patients in intensive care units also continued to rise, from 192 on June 27 to 223 on July 4. According to analysis by the Covid-19 Actuarial Group, compared to the surge in March and April, England is currently at two-thirds of its previous peak. Last week, The Independent revealed that some hospitals had begun to reverse decisions to drop face masks. After the first stories, more hospitals announced they were reinstating the requirement. The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust said on Monday: “As new sub-variants [BA.4 and BA.] have led to rising cases and hospital admissions both locally and across the UK, there have been steady increases in the number of healthcare staff testing positive, adding further pressure on resources.” An average of 285,507 people contract the virus every day in the UK, according to the latest figures from the Zoe Covid study. Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), warned last week that the UK is facing an early flu season ahead of another wave of Covid in the autumn. This is alongside increasing monkeypox infections. Dr Hopkins said: “While we don’t normally see flu really kick in until late November to December, it can happen as early as late September-October – that’s what we’re planning for.” She said she and her colleagues were watching Australia “very, very carefully” as the flu season there started early and increased rapidly across all age groups. He added: “We will see at least one wave of Covid in the autumn-winter, once we get over the current wave,” Dr Hopkins added. “And for the next six months at least, we will have ongoing community transmission of monkeypox.” Dame Jenny Harries, UKHSA chief executive, on Sunday warned that hospital cases were expected to rise further and raised concerns about the NHS’s ability to treat other illnesses as a result. He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “It doesn’t look like this wave is over yet, so we would expect hospital cases to increase. And it is possible, very likely, that they will actually top out above the previous BA.2 wave.” “While we now have an arsenal of vaccines and antiviral treatments, we have, as you just pointed out, an increase in admissions and hospital occupancy,” he said.
