Coronavirus: British hospitals left looking like ‘war zones’ after infection surge, says top science adviser

A new, more transmissible strain of the virus has heaped fresh pressure on overstretched health services, and overwrought medical staff

Britain’s total death tally now stands at more than 91,000, with the number of infections at nearly 3.5 million, according to official statistics

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Health care workers transport a patient at the Royal London Hospital earlier this week as the spread of Covid-19 continues across Britain. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:35pm, 20 Jan 2021Updated: 5:00am, 21 Jan 2021

Some British hospitals resemble a “war zone” due to the influx of coronavirus patients in the country’s latest wave of the disease, the government’s chief scientific adviser said on Wednesday.

Britain is gripped by a new strain of the virus, heaping fresh pressure on overstretched health services, and overwrought medical staff.

A record 1,610 deaths were recorded on Tuesday, although overall case numbers have started to fall.

“When you go into a hospital, this is very, very bad at the moment with enormous pressure and in some cases it looks like a war zone in terms of the things that people are having to deal with,” chief scientist Patrick Vallance told British television news channel Sky News.

Britain's Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance pictured during a virtual press conference on the pandemic earlier this month. Photo: AFP

The government is banking on an unprecedented vaccination drive to try to return life to normality.

More than 4 million people have received a jab since the programme began in early December.