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Michael Gove warns hospitals could become ‘overwhelmed’

Michael Gove warns hospitals could become 'overwhelmed'

Michael Gove warns hospitals could become ‘overwhelmed’

COVID-19 restrictions are likely to be in force until Easter, Sky News is reporting today (Saturday).

Senior sources have revealed that even if large numbers of Covid-19 vaccinations begin at the end of January it will be Easter – on 4 April next year – before life returns to normal, according to Sky.

 The news comes as Cabinet Officer minister Michael Gove has warned hospitals in England could become “overwhelmed” with Covid cases if MPs do not back new restrictions.

The Cabinet Office Minister urged MPs to ‘take responsibility for difficult decisions’ to curb the spread of Covid-19, amid anger from some Conservatives that much of England will face stringent restrictions.

Mr Gove said the decision to impose the measures was necessary to ‘pull the handbrake’ and avoid the ‘disaster’ of NHS hospitals – and private sector and newly-built Nightingale hospitals – being filled with Covid patients and emergency cases.

Many Tory MPs oppose the tougher tier system, which begins on 2 December, with Labour yet to decide whether it will support the new restrictions.

Senior Conservative MPs are predicting a rebellion by up to 70 Tory backbenchers, which would mean the prime minister would have to rely on Labour votes to avoid a humiliating defeat.

But writing in the Times, Mr Gove said unless action to slow the spread of coronavirus was taken, the NHS could be “broken” and hospitals “physically overwhelmed”.

“The tiers we had in place before the lockdown had not suppressed [Covid] sufficiently: they were neither strong enough to reduce social contact sufficiently, nor applied widely enough to contain the virus’s spread,” he wrote.

He added that, across the UK, about 16,000 beds are filled with Covid-19 patients, compared to a peak in April of almost 20,000 and a low of 740 on 11 September.

“When the country is facing such a national crisis, the truth is that all of us who have been elected to Parliament, not just ministers, must take responsibility for difficult decisions,” he said.

When England’s four-week national lockdown ends on Wednesday, 99% of England will enter the highest two tiers, with tight restrictions on bars and restaurants and a ban on households mixing indoors.

Some MPs say the new system imposes tight restrictions on numerous areas with low cases, and are calling instead for a more localised approach.

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