UK hospitals are so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients the government is transferring them to hotels
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Hospitals in the UK are so overwhelmed with COVID-19 that the government is starting to discharge patients early and transfer them to hotels, The Guardian reported.
The UK is experiencing its worst moment of the pandemic, with the number of people in the hospital at its highest in the pandemic. More than 35,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the BBC.
National Health Service hospitals and medical professionals are also struggling to cope, particularly in London, where Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a "major incident" on Sunday.That plan would see thousands of hospitalized patients discharged early to hotels or back to their own homes, The Guardian reported.
King's College Hospital in south London has already started moving some homeless COVID-19 patients to rooms at a hotel operated by the London Hotel Group in nearby Croydon, the newspaper reported.These patients have recovered or are recovering from COVID-19 and do not need specialist medical attention, a LHG spokesman told the Evening Standard.
"We'd only ever do that if it was clinically the right thing for somebody."
The NHS is also asking care homes to start taking on elderly people who have not recently tested negative for COVID-19, but who have spent two weeks in isolation, The Guardian said.
Read more: What's coming next for COVID-19 vaccines? Here's the latest on 11 leading programs.Hospitals across the UK are close to bursting, and temporary morgues set up during the last peak in April have been reopened.
The UK is struggling with a new
Southend Hospital, in southeastern England, has capped the amount of oxygen that can be given to COVID-19 patients given the "critical situation," the BBC said.
UK hospitals reported being overburdened during the April surge in cases, but the number of people hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 right now is at least 49% higher than it was in April, The Wall Street Journal reported.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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