to see the back of 2021. nearly two years into this pandemic, many are exhausted. a spike in covid cases is driving a rise in staff sickness. in england, london is worst affected, with about 4% of staff in acute trusts absent for covid related reasons in the week before christmas up nearly 60% on the week before. many feel it is impacting on patient care. the staff that are at work will be caring for more patients, trying to do more to cover for their missing colleagues, working extra hours, starting early, finishing late. the pressure will be immense. in the latest infection survey from the 0ns, infections increased across the uk to their highest level on record in the week to christmas eve. in england, one in 25 had the virus. in scotland, wales, and northern ireland, it was one in a0. infections doubled in a week in london. one in 15 would test positive. but there were big rises, too, in the north west,
at around 11 o clock, to set up a meeting with the defending champion gerwyn price. that s all the sport for now. there were 33 fewer deaths with coronavirus in england and wales in the latest recorded week, according to the the office for national statistics. it s the lowest number of deaths since the middle of october. the number of deaths involving covid i9 has now been falling since the mid november. however the 0ns says the number of deaths in total in the uk was 14% above the five year average. three quarters of people with new cold like symptoms are likely to have covid but exponential case growth seems to have stopped, according to the zoe covid study app. this is up from around 50% last week. with me now is dr claire steves, she is a scientist on the zoe covid study app and reader at king s college london.
hours. the committee figure for the last seven days, 810 deaths in the last seven days, 810 deaths in the last week. the cumulative figure. figure still going up. dr simon clarke is associate professor in cellular microbiology at the university of reading. when you put these figures that i just read out with the 0ns figures today from the survey, they really underline just how infectious variant is. underline ust how infectious variant is. underline “ust how infectious variant is. underline ust how infectious variant is. variant is. absolutely. if we compare variant is. absolutely. if we compare our variant is. absolutely. if we compare our situation - variant is. absolutely. if we| compare our situation today variant is. absolutely. if we i compare our situation today to variant is. absolutely. if we - compare our situation today to work we weren t exactly a year ago, we are getting about three times as many cases diagnosed from then. of course, we have to remember that t
with or become a sexual predator yourself because underage girls are very vulnerable, they are easy to take advantage of and it s taken very seriously when they are preyed upon by adults who do know better. there were 33 fewer deaths with coronavirus in england and wales in the latest recorded week, according to the the office for national statistics. it s the lowest number of deaths since the middle of october. the number of deaths involving covid i9 has now been falling since the mid november. however the 0ns says the number of deaths in total in the uk was 14% above the five year average. eight temporary covid hubs are to be set up at hospitals across england in preparation for a potential wave of 0micron admissions. nhs england says each site will have
what was dealt and. this is good news but we also know it is highly infectious. the 0ns estimated last week they think about one in 15 people in london were infected, we haven t seen infection rate like that before, so all that taken together means that with this high infection rate, despite the lower severity, we are seeing hospitalisation. we should remain cautious and people are doing that, thatis cautious and people are doing that, that is why the prime minister has said we re sticking with plan b for now, but also i cannot stress enough the importance of vaccinated, already over 75% of people, adults in the country that are eligible, are boosted, but we need more people to come forward, we have got the vaccines, the centre here today is “p vaccines, the centre here today is up and running, plenty of people there, wejust up and running, plenty of people there, we just need up and running, plenty of people there, wejust need more up and running, plenty of people there, we just nee