incidence of staff illness? yes, the whole nhs at the minute is reallyl whole nhs at the minute is really suffering the staff illness. we know across the north west starting the 2nd of january we across the north west starting the 2nd ofjanuary we had over 7300 staff members off across the nhs, which works out about 9% of the workforce, half of those are off with covid. as covid rates rise, it is inevitable that staff sickness rates rise, nhs staff like everybody else are not immune. it is a real struggle, we are busier than we have ever been, we have less staff than we have ever had, we really are stretched to the absolute limit to cope at the moment. haifa stretched to the absolute limit to cope at the moment. cope at the moment. how well protected cope at the moment. how well protected to cope at the moment. how well protected to staff cope at the moment. how well protected to staff members . cope at the moment. how well. protected to staff members feel cope at the moment. ho
we saw this during december until christmas, and now approaching 4 million people infected with covid. this is different from the daily figures we get because this is surveillance programme, estimated from the random sample they are testing. but when you think about the peak last winter, when just over i million people were infected at that peak, you can see just how high infection levels are, and even though it is causing milder illness, as we have been discussing, we re seeing those pressures on hospitals increasing. the health secretary sajid javid has been speaking to reporters after a visit to a hospital in central london. he says the nhs is in for a tough few weeks i have been meeting with the staff at king s college hospital in london, hearing about the excellent work they have been doing in caring
for nightclubs. alert level two. another two weeks of the rule of six being in place in hospitality, bars and restaurants, and maybe at least another two weeks of major sporting events being held behind closed doors. he also spoke about the impact on the health service, something which is a concern across the uk. he suggested that the sickness and absence rate due to isolation in some parts of the welsh nhs was as high as 16%, actual hospitalisations relating to covid have gone up by 43% in just the last week. the first minister was quite critical of the uk government as well, what did he have to say? particularly when people asked him what impact they thought those restrictions would have in wales given the case rate here is overall higher than in england. he suggested that the uk government hadn t made changes in england, therefore it was an outlier with the rest of the uk and many parts of
for their patients, saving lives and delivering vaccinations. i want to thank them and workers throughout the nhs up and down the country for the nhs up and down the country for the amazing work they had been doing throughout this pandemic, but particularly during these current challenging times. although as a country, it is a very difficult period for us, we are any stronger position than we were this time last year, thanks to the vaccination cue, testing, we have boosted more people in this country than any other country in europe, we have more antivirals per head than any other country in europe, testing more than any other country in europe, that is helping. despite all that, we are still seeing rising hospitalisations, particularly with case rates rising in older age groups, that is of concern. i think we have to be honest when we look at the nhs, it will be a rocky few weeks ahead. this is a reminder,
longer. there is a realfear on the ground that we need to be doing everything we can to keep our workforce healthy. the nhs is nothing without its star. when we talk about hospital beds, we don t mean a physical bed with a mattress, we mean the workforce that looks after that bed, the workforce needed to take care of the person. protecting the workforce absolutely has to be the highest priority at the moment. has to be the highest priority at the moment- has to be the highest priority at the moment. i, ., , l, , l and you can check how your local nhs services are coping using the bbc nhs tracker for emergency treatment. it allows you to find out how your local services are coping this winter and how that compares to the situation before the pandemic. wales first minister mark drakeford has confirmed there won t be any changes to the coronavirus rules in the welsh government s latest review. the first minister warned the storm of 0micron had arrived in wales