Coronavirus: British Health Minister calls for learning to “live” with COVID-19

The Minister of Health British, Sajid Javid, said on Saturday that in England new restrictions will only be imposed “as a last resort”, despite the spectacular increase in cases, considering that it was necessary to learn to “live with” the coronavirus.

The United Kingdom, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus with more than 148,600 deaths from the pandemic, records record cases every day (and had more than 189,000 in 24 hours on Friday).

Hospitalizations are also on the rise, though authorities are insisting for the moment that the omicron variant appears to cause less severe forms than the previous predominant strain, Delta.

“The number (of people) in intensive care units remains stable and at the moment does not follow the trajectory that we saw last year in this period during the alpha wave,” wrote Sajid Javid in a column published in the Daily Mail.

With it is the country with “a much stronger position” thanks to a massive campaign of booster doses, the government decided not to impose more restrictions in the Christmas period.

Emphasizing “the enormous health, social and economic cost of the confinements”, the minister considered vaccination, an arsenal of treatments and massive testing sufficient measures.

However, he admitted that the health system would “inevitably” come under pressure in the coming weeks due to a “sharp increase” in hospitalizations.

Anticipating this possibility, the public health service (NHS) announced that it is installing temporary structures with hundreds of beds to prepare for the “worst case scenario”.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

IT MAY INTEREST YOU