of a surge in covid patients. but there s concern about who will staff them. we would prefer that the government take steps to avoid needing to use that extra surge capacity, purely because there just aren t the number of staff needed to safely provide the care for any patients that are requiring care, and that is where the priority needs to be, to ensure we ve got staff to safely care for people that need care. eight nightingale units will be set up in hospital grounds to care for around 100 covid patients each, and hospital admissions are now rising sharply in the uk, almost doubling in england in the past week. and that follows several weeks of soaring infections, reaching record highs. but many people are still finding it hard to get tested. we thought we would come to the local pharmacy to see if they ve got any lateral flow tests. but you don t need to go in to see that they re out of stock. so let s try this one.
katharine da costa reports. most nhs staff will be glad 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
going to the city of chicago s public schools. schools got more money from previous stimulus packages and yet the chicago teacher s union says that the district is not doing enough to keep them safe. they want more testing and they want the district to hand out better masks. that money went out to the states. the states and the school districts have spent this money well. many of them. unfortunately some haven t. when our district was remote, our children suffered. there s no disputing that reality. across the country this week, more than 4,500 schools are either closed or fully online right now. chicago public schools say they don t oppose closing certain schools if there s a spike in covid cases and a staffing shortage because so many teachers are sick. they say shutting down the system districtwide like we re seeing today is not an
school districts, saying that they wanted more testing, more masks, and they want the districts to try to figure out a way to deal with the critical staffing shortages that they ve been dealing with since the beginning of the pandemic. nadia romero, cnn, atlanta. in chicago, it is still unclear if classes will resume on monday for more than 300,000 public school students. classes were canceled after the teacher s union voted against in-person learning, citing concerns over a surge in covid cases. now, public school officials and the mayor are pushing to resume classes as soon as possible. in the meantime, families are in limbo, with their kids stuck at home. here s one parent s viewpoint. it s been very stressful. i m not just a parent, but i have been always an education advocate and activist, so for me being that now i m literally in the position where my daughter s future is at stake, it makes it
familiar to the public throughout the pandemic. now the chief medical officers for england, chris whitty. .. if lots of people are vaccinated, that reduces risk of transmission in the community. ..for scotland, gregor smith, and for wales, frank atherton, have all been knighted. a knighthood as well for england s deputy chief medical officer, jonathan van tam. also being recognised for their roles responding to covid jenny harries of the health security agency and june raine, head of the uk s vaccine regulator. they have both become dames. # wheels on fire. in the entertainment world, joanna lumley says she is stunned to be made a dame. patsy stone 47. ..both for her acting career. i ll sue! ..and for her campaigning work. when i saw the sentence saying dbe, i burst into tears. it was an extraordinary shock. it was such a shock. i put my head in my hands and sobbed like a baby. then i thought, how has this happened? is it a mistake? i truly was thrown by it,