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Overwhelmed

As the Tory government opens up schools and workplaces to benefit employers, Covid-19 infections are spiralling upwards.

Worryingly, analysis by the Guardian says that a worst-case scenario of high levels of infection, along with normal winter pressures on hospitals, would leave many NHS trusts in England overwhelmed by patients.

But even with lower levels of infection, a majority of trusts (60%) could reach patient capacity, with seven trusts being completely overwhelmed.

Poverty and Covid

A leaked report from soon-to-be-axed Public Health England confirmed that widespread poverty, poor housing and large BAME communities in the north of the country meant that Covid-19 never really disappeared from the North West, North, Yorkshire and the Humber and East Midlands.

Disneyland

Health secretary Matt Hancock continues to project his fantasy that the deeply flawed Covid-19 privatised testing system is a ‘world beater’.

Tell that to the people told to drive 450 miles to Inverness for a test! Even Boris Johnson’s eminence grise, Dominic Cummings, only had to drive 25 miles to test his eyesight.

But even people tested locally have complained that they haven’t received the results.

The testing crisis reflects the undermining of public health laboratories and local NHS health facilities by the Tory government, in favour of profit-making corporations with no experience in delivering public health services.