COVID On The Rise In UK As More Patients In Hospitals Than In March

COVID-19 admissions are rising in the U.K., with a growing number of elderly people needing urgent treatment. According to the Guardian, England's emergency Nightingale hospitals will be used again in the north of the country to provide extra capacity for local health services amid a steep rise in infections.

Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said that temporary hospital establishments used at the height of the pandemic will be reopening and can accept patients within a few weeks.

This is the first time any of England's seven Nightingale hospitals have been brought back into service after being placed on standby as infection rates dipped during the summer months.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson implemented new COVID-19 restrictions for specific England regions, where infection rates are spiking.

Jonathan Van Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, argued that infection rates are rising fast in northern England due to the fact that the COVID infection rate never dropped as far as it did in the south during the summer.

Powis, speaking alongside Van Tam at a press conference, said that there were now more coronavirus patients in England hospitals than before national restrictions were introduced on March 23.

Hospitals in the northwest and northeast had seen a significant increase in COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care in the past four weeks, he said. "If infections continue to rise, in four more weeks they could be treating more patients than they were at the peak of the first wave."

"Pandemic fatigue" has set in across Europe, with France and Spain seeing a surge. Madrid has become a COVID hot spot.

In the U.S., 54% of rural counties are seeing a sharp uptick in COVID cases, according to the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America.