reporter: well, i can tell you, kate, the union s rank and file members will begin voting on this proposed agreement later this afternoon. the mayor and the union representative expect this deal to pass. and let s take a look at some of the key points. first and foremost, there will be an upgrade to testing at schools across the district. we re talking about weekly testing, there will be more kn95 masks, paid contact tracing team, and perhaps the most significant, when you ask members of the union, there will be a thresh hold that triggers schools to switch to remote learning, we re talking about individual schools, if they are experiencing a surge in covid cases. and when we talk about a surge, they re talking about high transmission rates, outlined by the cdc. the mayor said her focus now is moving forward. listen in.
the start of building work on the next wave of nightingale hubs. this one is at st george s hospital in south west london. the government says it is a contingency measure, in case of a surge in covid patients. but there is 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 required to requiring care, and that is where the priority needs to be, to ensure we have 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
hospital in south west london. the government says it s a contingency measure in case 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 s with the priority needs to be, to ensure that 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.
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 s 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 tested positive. but there were big rises too in the north west, yorkshire and the humber and west midlands. other regions weren t far behind. it is now the dominant variant. statisticians say infections are twice the level they were this time last winter in england because they re
this is bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. i m rebecca jones. our top stories. the uk prime minister says there is no reason forfurther restrictions in england, despite a surge in covid cases. as he visited a vaccination site, borisjohnson hailed the progress of the booster rollout but said hospitals would still come under pressure. the pressure on our nhs and on our hospitals is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks and maybe more because there is no question omicron continues to surge through the country. but in the netherlands, scientists meet to discuss whether schools there can re open next week after closing early for christmas amid the spread of omicron. sudan faces a deepening political crisis after the resignation