Temporary “Nightingale” field hospitals are to be revived under plans that could involve gyms and education centres being used to cope with the surge of Covid cases in England, as ministers seek to avoid contentious new restrictions.
The number of Covid patients in English hospitals has been on the rise since the emergence of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, and went above 10,000 on Wednesday for the first time since early March, according to the latest official data. The number of new Covid-19 cases reported across the UK also jumped on Wednesday to 183,037, although the figures are likely to be inflated by reporting backlogs over the festive period.
Sajid Javid, health secretary, hopes that expanding emergency hospital capacity will take pressure off the NHS and remove the need for new curbs on the economy.