the uk has recorded the highest daily
coronavirus death toll since the start
of the pandemic
1325 more people have lost their lives
to add to that grim figure a record
number of new cases more than
68 000 positive tests were recorded in
the past 24 hours
hospitals across the uk are now under
severe pressure
with some treating many more patients
than they did during the first peak in
april
london and the southeast of england are
currently being hit the hardest with one
senior nhs leader saying the situation
is
off the scale calling it a winter crisis
like no other he has ever seen
here's our health editor hugh pym
two brothers enjoying a swim on a
foreign holiday
exactly a year later one of them died
with kovid 19.
he's a big chap there's no denying that
but he could swim
all day long you know he was running on
christmas day james remembers his
brother david who was 36
they both tested positive and were
isolating but david's condition
worsened overnight and he didn't survive
we were going to sit there
and rough it out well it didn't work for
us and my advice would be
not i want to scare monger people and i
don't want to be dramatic but i think
people
if you're in that situation if you're
sat at home
and you're starting to really struggle
for breath
ring 1-1 a post-mortem will try to
establish whether there were other
factors in david's death
as more lives are lost and case numbers
increase
london's mayor has declared a major
incident with a call for financial
support from the government hospitals
are so busy that ambulance is a delayed
handing over patients
with waiting times up 36 percent in the
southeast in december
according to data leaked to bbc news
covid patient numbers are rising in
other regions
extra staff have been drafted into this
intensive care unit in wolverhampton
including dental specialists i didn't
really think about
how hard it would be even patient roles
to end of life
it's somebody's loved one and this
nottinghamshire hospital
says the pressure is intensifying we're
beginning to see
that huge increase that london has seen
so we've got 160 patients
covered in our organization that's
nearly double the number that we saw
in the first wave critical care is
exceptionally busy
and the colleagues who work here are
tired they're fatigued and they're worn
out
the latest survey of community
infections by the office for national
statistics
suggests that last week in northern
ireland one in 200 people had the virus
with case rates no longer decreasing in
scotland
it was 1 in 115 with case numbers on the
increase
in wales 1 in 70 though case rates were
coming down
in england one in 50 had the virus with
case numbers on the increase
the worst affected area was london with
one in 30.
the latest r number range 1 to 1.4
was higher than the previous estimate
anything above one
suggests the virus is accelerating
vaccinations continue though there was a
long queue and weights in the cold for
people in priority groups
invited to this clinic for their jobs it
was confirmed that a third vaccine has
been approved by regulators
it's made by the u.s company moderna and
the government's ordered 17 million
doses
though they're unlikely to be available
before the spring
right now senior health officials are
focused on the spread of the virus
they're worried there are more people
out and about than during the first
lockdown
and they think there could be more than
a hundred thousand new infections per
day
including those who haven't been tested
hugh pim bbc news
well let's look at the latest government
figures in detail there were
68 053 new coronavirus cases recorded in
the latest 24-hour period
the average number of new cases reported
per day in the last week is now
59 344.
hospital admissions keep climbing on
average there were
28 756 covid19 patients in hospital
in the last week and today's record
death toll 1300
deaths that's people who died within 28
days of a positive covid19 test
it means on average in the past week 809
deaths were announced
every day it takes the total number of
deaths so far
across the uk to 79
833.
our medical editor fergus walsh is with
me now they're truly terrible figures
and the awful thing is
it's going to get worse it will sophie
there are now 31
000 covid patients in hospital across
the uk that's
up 50 since christmas day
and 10 000 higher than at the peak in
april and coronavirus
cases are surging and that has yet to
show up in the hospital data because of
the lag between
infection and people falling seriously
ill so the number of deaths
seems certain to keep on rising now i've
seen first
hand this week the pressures in
intensive care the stress
on hospitals and on staff is greater
than at any time during this pandemic
but there is hope a third covid vaccine
approved today the
madonna jab is 95 effective
against covert disease the immunization
program with the oxford and fisa jazz
will be ramped up from
monday but more than 2 million people a
week
will need to be immunised if the target
of 15 million
being offered the jab is to be reached
by mid-february so difficult weeks ahead
the numbers in hospital won't start to
fall
unless people behave like they did
during the first lockdown sophie keeping
their distance from others and washing
their hands
and tonight the prime minister said he
urged he said compliance
is now more vital than ever and he urged
people to stay at home
and protect the nhs fergus thank you
well for those who are most sick those
whose lungs have not been helped by a
ventilator there is another alternative
it's called ecmo they're specialist
intensive care
life support machines which pump oxygen
into the patient's blood
allowing the lungs to rest there are
only six
nhs centers in the uk that offer the
treatment to a few dozen patients
but now they're under pressure to take
on more our health correspondent sophie
hutchinson has been given rare access to
an ecmo unit
at the royal papworth hospital in
cambridge
they're the sickest patients we've ever
seen even for patients on ecmo
is everybody ready the patients are very
poorly and in bigger numbers than we've
ever had them
these are among the very sickest
patients with covid19 in the country
and this ward is their last hope
their lungs are so damaged by the
disease that even ventilators haven't
helped
and they've come here for the rarest
form of life support
from a machine known as ecmo
ecmo stands for extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation
it allows these patients to breathe
without using their lungs
giving their lungs a vital rest so that
they can recover
as you can see here you got black blood
coming out
and red blood full of oxygen going back
in the patient
this ecmo center was set up following
the swine flu outbreak in 2009
but the coronavirus pandemic is now
stretching it
almost to the limit normally on this
ward they have
three patients on ecmo but because of
the pandemic and the damage that covid19
does to the lungs
they have many more in fact each of
these rooms has a patient
on ecmo in it they say they have 18
patients here today
and they've described it as a super
surge i know there is a limit that we
will reach i have
no idea when that limit will be there by
continuing
extending extending there will be a
cracking point
hello speaking can i help and as well as
treating patients
staff are working around the clock
fielding calls
from other hospitals there are a maximum
of around 100 ecmo beds in the uk
but there have been 3 000 requests for
patient referrals
it is relentless so patient after
patient after patient
they take a long time to get better
they're the sickest patients we've ever
seen even for patients on ecmo
you know they're not old patients
they're you know a younger cohort
and so it is it is really really
difficult
and we are all at times finding it quite
overwhelming
is everybody ready
[Music]
some patients are in their 20s and 30s
most
are older they have to be strong enough
to withstand ecmo
and the work looking after them is
grueling it's very difficult
it's very difficult things are very
intense the patients are very poorly
poorly of them than we've probably ever
seen them
and in bigger numbers than we've ever
had them so it's a lot to deal with we
haven't got the staffing numbers to cope
with the
amount of patients that we have but
we're doing what we can for the patients
that we have with the time that we have
towards the end of our filming another
two patients arrived on the ward
staff are proud that everyone who meets
the criteria for ecmo
has so far been offered a bed here but
this extra pressure
was hard to handle we're not as
resilient this time as we were last time
because we've really had no down time so
to speak
but we still do it because that's what
we do
and what they're doing is saving lives
through their dedication and
determination
perhaps more than half of these patients
will eventually
awake and go home to their loved ones
sophie hutchinson bbc news