London mayor declares ‘major incident’ due to rising Covid infections

London, Jan 9 : Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” in the British capital as rising coronavirus cases are threatening to overwhelm hospitals.
The London mayor on Friday said that he is “declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point”, Xinhua news agency reported.
“If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS (National Health Service) could be overwhelmed and more people will die,” he said.
According to the mayor, the number of confirmed cases in London has increased rapidly with more than a third more patients being treated in hospitals now compared to the peak of the pandemic last April.
“Our heroic doctors, nurses and NHS staff are doing an amazing job, but with cases rising so rapidly, our hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed. The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically,” he added.
There are currently around 830 admissions to London hospitals per day, up from around 500 before Christmas, which could rise further over the next two weeks, according to The Guardian newspaper.