Around one in 10 hospital beds in Greater Manchester are currently occupied by patients with Covid, the latest figures have revealed. It comes as experts warn a new variant dubbed 'the Kraken' could become one of the dominant strains in the UK.
On Friday (January 13) around 11 per cent of Greater Manchester's approximately 5,000 hospital beds were occupied by patients with coronavirus. There are also 354 people in 'general and acute' hospital beds and 22 in 'critical care' beds with flu.
In total, 97 per cent of Greater Manchester's hospital beds are currently occupied. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News earlier this week an A&E doctor in Greater Manchester delays in discharging patients meant they were more likely to catch Covid or flu while in hospital.
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He said: "The longer they stay in the more likely they are to catch Covid or flu. We’re seeing a lot of nosocomial infection at the moment [infections originating in hospital].
"We can manage and manage, but one small thing will tip them over the edge. All of this is the worst for patients, at least we get to go home after our shifts, it's like this for them all the time."
Experts have stressed that kraken, a 'sub lineage' of the Omicron variant, is not more dangerous than the original Omicron variant. But it does have a 'growth advantage' and could become the dominant variants in the UK.
However total Covid-19 infections in the UK fell at the start of the month, in fresh evidence the current wave may have peaked – though levels have yet to start dropping in all parts of the country. There has also been an 'encouraging' decrease in the number of patients in hospital with the virus.
A rise in Covid-19 patients in the run-up to Christmas was one of a number of factors mentioned by health chiefs as creating extra pressures on the NHS, along with bed shortages, staff sickness and a surge in flu cases. Some 2.7m people in private households in the UK were likely to test positive for coronavirus at the start of this month, down from 3m over Christmas, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Around one in 25 people in England and Scotland are estimated to have had Covid-19 at the new year. It comes as the latest hotspots in Greater Manchester were revealed - keep reading to find out if you live in an area of concern.
Bu the current wave of coronavirus looks to have peaked at a level below those seen in previous outbreaks.
Infections climbed as high as 4.3 million last winter during the spread of the Omicron variant, but this was topped a few months later during the wave caused by the Omicron BA.2/3 subvariants, when infections reached a record 4.9 million. The latest estimate for England is 2.2 million infections, down from 2.5 million, while Wales has seen infections fall to 157,000 from 173,200.
Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist for immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said: "These early signs that Covid-19 infection levels may be in decline are encouraging and welcome, but we cannot be complacent.
"We’re heading in the right direction but Covid-19 is still circulating at high levels and hospital admissions remain high in the oldest age groups, so it is particularly important that everyone who is eligible continues to come forward to accept their booster jab."
In Greater Manchester 54.2pc of people eligible have now had their Covid-19 autumn booster, while 76.6pc of adults and 19pc of children have received at least two doses of the jab.
Speaking last week Manchester's Director of Public Health, David Regan, said that despite the new Covid-19 variant, health chiefs were more concerned about cases of flu. He said: "If we go back to a normal winter like 2019 and before, what you’d normally see is flu season starting the week before Christmas and continuing to January and February in a bad season.
"Because of the pandemic, we had two years with hardly any cases of flu, but because of a return to social mixing we saw flu kick off much earlier - around late November. This put pressure on our hospital systems much earlier."
In a statement on Friday (Jan 13) NHS Greater Manchester chief exec Mark Fisher said 'all aspects' of the NHS were still experiencing 'immense pressure'. And he urged anyone eligible to have a flu vaccine.
Mr Fisher said: “As cases of flu this year remain high, we can keep more people out of hospital by ensuring that those who are eligible come forward for their vaccine. We have delivered 851,676 flu vaccines in Greater Manchester so far this winter.
"Please do not underestimate how serious flu can be, particularly to those who are vulnerable, and get the vaccine to protect yourself and your loved ones."
Top 10 coronavirus hotspots in Greater Manchester
According to an interactive map which charts the number of positive test results in each neighbourhood across the country using government data, these are the 10 areas of Greater Manchester with the highest infection rate per 100,000 people in the seven days to January 7.
Nuttall and Tottington in Bury is currently the worst-affected neighbourhood in Greater Manchester. Many areas across all 10 boroughs have recorded fewer than three cases in the latest seven-day period and do not show up on the map.
Nuttall and Tottington (Bury)
Total cases: 21 (up by 19 or 950pc)
Infection rate: 282.7
Heaton and Deane (Bolton)
Total cases: 21 (up by 19 or 950pc)
Infection rate: 233.6
Withington West (Manchester)
Total cases 11 (up by 9 or 450pc)
Infection rate: 165.5
Doffcocker and Moss Bank (Bolton)
Total cases: 13 (up by 10 or 333.3pc)
Infection rate: 160.4
Platt Bridge and Spring View (Wigan)
Total cases: 12 (up by 10 or 500pc)
Infection rate: 128.2
Central Stockport, Portwood and Shaw Heath (Stockport)
Total cases: 10 (up by eight or 400pc)
Infection rate: 126.9
Timperley South (Trafford)
Total cases: 9 (no increase)
Infection rate: 117.3
Altrincham East (Trafford)
Total cases: 12 (up by five or 71.4pc)
Infection rate: 116.9
Marple and Rose Hill (Stockport)
Total cases: 8 (up by 4 or 100pc)
Infection rate: 109.8
Timperley North (Trafford)
Total cases: 9 (up by six or 200pc)
Infection rate: 105.9
