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Officials say it is in the public’s hands to take control of the UK’s pandemic

Officials say it is in the public’s hands to take control of the UK’s pandemic

Experts are once again reiterating that it is in the public’s hands to take control of the UK’s pandemic.

In addition to the launch of the government’s new campaign where people in England are being told to act as if they have already got Covid, the public are also being urged to:

“Behave as if you’re trying to protect your brothers, your sisters, your parents and your friends”.

As the country is starting to see the effects of household mixing over Christmas and the emergence of the new variant of coronavirus, government officials and scientists are once again calling for individuals to take responsibility to help bring down cases.

A record 68,053 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the UK on Friday, with one in 50 people in England now thought to have coronavirus, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This figure rises to one in 30 in London.

Professor Calum Semple, a member of the government’s scientific group for emergencies (SAGE), said:

“I’m afraid it will get worse”.

He added:

“We’re seeing increasing numbers in the Midlands and the North West and the North East”.

“We’re also 14 days after Christmas, so we’re now in the sweet spot for the effects of Christmas mixing, which sadly coincided with the emergence of this new, more transmissible strain”.

Professor Semple said there is “nothing magical” about bringing cases down and easing pressure on hospitals, emphasising:

“It’s in the public’s hands to take control”.

“Behave as if you’re trying to protect your brothers, your sisters, your parents and your friends”.

Dr Katie Sanderson who works at a London hospital, said:

“I think we’ve all got to think really, really, really carefully about what we do over the next couple of weeks because otherwise we are not going to be able to offer good quality medical care to people who need it, and that is patients with coronavirus but it’s also all other patients who have heart attacks, fall of their bicycle, have appendicitis, strokes, hit by a car, have burns”.

“None of this has stopped and this effects everybody”.

One ICU nurse expressed that her colleagues have become “so burnt out they can’t eat”.

Photo: Vladimir Fedotov.

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