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Latest updates: PM warns that infection rates have jumped as ONS estimates show about 567,000 people in England had Covid last week
- Teachers will not be in charge of testing in English schools, says minister
- Long Covid guidance urges referral to clinics after four weeks
- The people planning a trip abroad this Christmas
- Global coronavirus updates – live
Asked about the prospect of following Wales and Northern Ireland into a full lockdown after Christmas, Scotland’s health secretary, Jeane Freeman, told the daily briefing that “nothing at this point can sensibly be ruled out”.
Undoubtedly the situation in Wales and Northern Ireland is significantly more challenging…but that doesn’t mean we should be complacent.
Hospitals in Scotland are coping, they are not ringing alarm bells to tell us to do something dramatic quickly.
The Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine have added their voice to calls for people to be cautious and “take personal responsibility for the health of themselves and others around them” this Christmas.
In a joint statement, they said:
Anaesthetists and intensive care doctors are working incredibly hard to care for their patients this winter, but they can only do so much.
Increased admissions of Covid could see ICUs stretched to their capacity and will also increase the risk of healthcare workers getting infected, impacting many other services.
