Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con):...Where are we now? Let us
look at the hospitalisation cases. We were at 35,000 covid
in-patients, and clearly the NHS was struggling to cope. When
academics at Imperial College modelled what a freedom day on 5 July
would look like in hospitalisation numbers, it came up with a
figure of 7,000; Warwick University came up with 1,750. The figure
for covid in-patients is currently under 1,000—better than
expected. In the combined county of Sussex, with...Request free trial
(Bexhill and Battle) (Con):...Where are we now?
Let us look at the hospitalisation cases. We were at 35,000 covid
in-patients, and clearly the NHS was struggling to cope. When
academics at Imperial College modelled what a freedom day on 5 July
would look like in hospitalisation numbers, it came up with a
figure of 7,000; Warwick University came up with 1,750.
The figure for covid in-patients is currently under 1,000—better
than expected. In the combined county of Sussex, with 1.6 million
residents, there are six covid in-patients, and in my own county of
East Sussex there are two of the six. Interestingly, they did not
present with covid or get admitted because of it; they were just
tested while being admitted, found to have covid and included in
the numbers. The hospitalisation numbers are looking much better,
and the NHS now has resilience. What is striking to me is the
number of people who are waiting to have their lives enhanced by
elective treatment. In England alone, 5 million people are waiting
for surgery. Over 400,000 of them have been waiting for more than a
year; prior to covid, that figure was 1,600. That demonstrates the
wider health impact of restrictions. Those people deserve a life,
too, and they deserve to be looked after. There should not be an
apartheid system when it comes to our health service...
(East
Worthing and Shoreham) (Con):...We also have dodgy data from
three modelling studies by the University of
Warwick, Imperial College, and the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. They show widely different
scenarios, with the most pessimistic warning that the UK could
experience a further 203,000 deaths by next June, which is around
50,000 more than the first and second waves combined. Yet how can
that be when we know the vaccine works, and the data show a likely
90% take-up rate?
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