A nurse puts on PPE in a ward for covid patients at King’s College Hospital, in south east London
(Picture: PA)The number of patients with Covid in London hospitals is at its highest level for almost two months.
A total of 2,330 inpatients on Wednesday had tested positive for the virus but only about 26 per cent were in hospital “primarily” because of Covid, according to NHS England statistics published on Thursday.
The remainder were receiving treatment for another condition but were found to also have the virus.
It came as the Office for National Statistics was set to confirm that community infection levels are at the highest point at any stage in the pandemic.
Health charities fear the impact on vulnerable people as this coincides with the ending of free Covid tests for the general public.
The ONS’s “gold standard” weekly infection survey, which is due to be published at midday on Friday, is likely to show that more than 3.5 million people in England have coronavirus.
Last week’s figure of 3,485,700 was the second highest on record, with 6.3 per cent of the population — or one in 16 people — estimated to have the virus.
London’s rates are higher than the national average, with one in 15 people thought to have Covid. However, the number in the capital’s hospital is below a third of the peak seen in January last year, when there were 7,917 Covid inpatients.
Experts say infections have been driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant, the increase in socialising and decline in mask-wearing on public transport.
Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, admitted infections were at “a very high level” but there was not a “significant translation” into serious illness or death.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There has been a small up-tick in deaths in the last week and again... Some hospitals are coming under significant pressure and we shouldn’t underestimate that.
“But overall, immune defences through the vaccination programme has been really successful and of course we now have treatments.”
From Friday, NHS and care home staff will continue to be provided with free lateral flow tests and people at serious risk from Covid will also get free tests if they develop symptoms.
But the disability equality charity Scope said many people would struggle to afford tests, which cost about £2 each, due to the increased cost of living. It said there was a lack of clarity about who qualified for free tests.
Louise Rubin, Scope’s head of policy, said: “Disabled people up and down the country are still facing a life-threatening situation. The pandemic is not over.
“Nearly four million people in the UK were asked to shield during the lockdowns, and six in 10 of those who died of coronavirus were disabled.”
