Originally Posted by
DaveS
Daily data:
Cases 93,045 (58,194 last Friday)
Deaths 111 (120)
Patients admitted 900 (848 on the 6th)
Patients in hospital 7,611 (7,436 on the 9th)
Patients in ventilation beds 875 (900 on the 9th)
People vaccinated up to and including 16 December 2021:
First dose: 51,364,110
Second dose: 46,886,162
Booster: 25,598,784
The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 38.6% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is down 4.5%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 113.4 today. Vaccination figures for England are AWOL today so far. Despite another jump in cases, the figure for weekly deaths is now below 800 (794) for the first time since 13th October. It peaked at nearly 1,200 early in November and has been falling since then.
The figure for cases certainly caught my attention. At some point in the next few days > 100000 is going to be the norm. How long before testing capacity is overwhelmed? I think things could get quite inconvenient in the next couple of weeks. Hospital staff, HGV drivers, shop workers, public transport workers and so on are going to be entering periods of quarantine in numbers. At the very least, I think it not unreasonable people have frozen backup (now) to the fresh things they normally buy in the run up to Christmas Day (though I still hold a candle for those fresh sprouts from our local M&S early-mid week). Oh, and try not to be ill.
Also, not to sound too pessimistic but while it looks increasingly like Omicron is vastly less lethal, I can see it overwhelming the NHS by virtue of there not being sufficient staff for those who do need hospital care. I think COVID has just become a disease of unpredictable knock on effects. I hope it peaks and fizzles quickly.