COVID-19 Surge in The UK Forces Doctors to Prioritize Younger Patients for Critical Care

COVID-19 Surge in The UK Forces Doctors to Prioritize Younger Patients for Critical Care
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Desperate situations require desperate measures, as the new strain of the COVID-19 disease is ravaging the UK. Each day of 2021, the country reported over 50,000 infections, a staggering number for a population of only about 66 million people.

New York Post reveals that doctors from hospitals in London say that they’re forced to choose who gets life-saving critical care. As Dr. Katharina Hauck from Imperial College of London declared for the Daily Mail:

Sadly, some hospitals are now forced to follow . . . emergency triage of all patients requiring critical care,

The doctor also added:

Applying this guidance effectively means that patients under the age of 65 who are not frail will be prioritized over elderly and frailer patients for critical care. Frail patients would be cared for in general wards with less intensive care.

About 3,000 COVID-19 patients from the UK are in serious/critical situations, and we can expect the number to increase.

Vaccinations are ongoing in the UK

BBC says that about 1.5 million people living in the UK had already been injected with either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. The most targeted group is represented by people above the age of 80, as they are at the highest risk of severe illness and death from the coronavirus.

According to The Telegraph, tens of millions of people from the UK will receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the spring, as over 2,700 vaccination sites are scattered across the country. The plan is that by the end of January, every person living in England will be located less than 10 miles from a vaccination center.

The new strain of the coronavirus that emerged in the UK back in September is believed to be about 70 percent more contagious than previous variants, although the current reported numbers of infections would seem to suggest a much higher rate of spread.


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Anna is an avid blogger with an educational background in medicine and mental health. She is a generalist with many other interests including nutrition, women's health, astronomy and photography. In her free time from work and writing, Anna enjoys nature walks, reading, and listening to jazz and classical music.

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