More than 40% of hospital patients being treated for Covid-19 are under the age of 65, official data shows.
Setting out the latest data at a Downing Street press briefing, Professor Chris Whitty explained that 42% admitted to hospital with the virus are under 65, while 58% are over.
The chief medical officer for England said although there has been a ‘significant fall’ in the number of Covid hospital patients, the rate is ‘only slightly below the height of the first peak’.
His comments came after the prime minister set out his ‘one way road to freedom’ by confirming his four-step plan for easing lockdown restrictions in England.
But the Government confirmed that progress on the next steps out of lockdown will depend on the country meeting four key tests.
They will depend on the success of the vaccine rollout, the efficacy of the jabs and their impact on reducing hospital admissions and deaths, a drop in infection rates, and the new variants.
On the latest Covid data, Prof Whitty told the briefing: ‘When we look at the number of people in hospital with Covid in the UK, again you can see there is a significant fall that is continuing.
‘But the rates are still high and they are only slightly below the height of the first peak we had first year.
‘So, definitely things are heading the right way but remain at a high level.’
The five-week gap between each stage of the four-step plan allows experts to see whether such tests are being met, before officials decide whether to allow the easing of the next round of restrictions.
Explaining the importance of the five-week gap, Prof Whitty said: ‘Inevitably, for each one of these steps we are taking a risk which is an accepted risk – there is a risk to this, and everybody in the country I’m sure understands this.
‘And what we want to do is after each set of risks with a particular set of opening up, wait until we have data that tells us, has this done what we expected it to do, have we actually ended up in a slightly worse place than we thought we would, or have indeed we ended up in a slightly better place?
‘But I think the big worry is, have things got slightly worse than we were expecting, and we cannot measure that in less than about four weeks because it takes that long for the effect to be seen and the data to come through and be analysed.’
More follows…
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Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown
Boris Johnson has laid out his plans to lift Covid-19 restrictions in England, following weeks of lockdown which began on January 4.
The Prime Minister confirmed that the route back to normality will depend upon four tests for easing restrictions and will take into account the success of the vaccine rollout.