The British government displays 200 military in London hospitals under pressure by the Covid

The British government will deploy some 200 military in London hospitals to support the public health service (NHS), which suffers from growing absenteeism whil

The British government displays 200 military in London hospitals under pressure by the Covid

The British government will deploy some 200 military in London hospitals to support the public health service (NHS), which suffers from growing absenteeism while increasing revenues due to Covid-19, has announced this Friday the Ministry of Defense.

The deployment includes 40 military physicians and 160 auxiliary personnel that will help in the next three weeks to supply the lack of health personnel infected by the virus in the British capital, epicenter of the new wave of contagions due to the omicron variant.

The Minister of Defense, Ben Wallace, has celebrated the contribution of the military to the "national effort", and recalled that they have already participated by conducting ambulances, administered vaccines or supported by hospitalized patients since the pandemic began two years ago.

Some 1,800 soldiers are already deployed throughout the United Kingdom, supporting vaccination tasks and ambulance services.

According to the latest official figures published on Thursday, almost 18,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, an increase of 50% in a week and the highest figure since February.

United Kingdom is one of the nations most affected by the pandemic in Europe, with almost 150,000 deaths and record levels of infections, which are around 200,000 daily. However, the number of patients with artificial respirators (875) and deaths (231 on Thursday) is much lower than the previous waves, which has led the government not to harden the restrictions in England for the time being.

Increasing the pressure, the hospital system faces thousands of personnel absences, at "never seen" levels, has explained to the Sky News Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, president of the British Medical Association (BMA).

Matthew Taylor, director of the NHS Confederation, a group of public health professionals, considers that the deployment of 200 troops "will help", but that the situation will continue to be "very difficult".

Date Of Update: 07 January 2022, 11:31