UK hospitals on the front line 'will hold' against the soaring numbers of cases of Covid and the Omicron strain, NHS bosses have said.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, made the comment as it was revealed that admissions into hospitals in the capital have dropped by 17 per cent.
The number of Covid cases has also fallen for the fifth day in a row, with 141,472 people testing positive across the UK in 24 hours.
Tragically a further 97 people have died due to the virus, the Department of Health added.
Experts warn that although the latest wave appears to have peaked in London, cases are rising across the rest of England.
Meanwhile, The Times reports that in London admissions to hospital are down by 17 per cent from the beginning of the year and that the rolling average has dropped for the last seven days.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said he believed the health service’s “front line will hold”.
And Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, director of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, told Times Radio: "We’re certainly not going to see a big rise in intensive care admissions and deaths and those really severe outcomes”.
The latest figure show a 178 per cent increase from the number of infections confirmed a month ago, with more than 1.2 million cases in the past week.
A week ago the Government confirmed 137,583 cases and 73 deaths, while a month ago, on December 9, 50,867 people tested positive and there were 148 fatalities.
On Saturday the UK became the first country in Europe to record 150,000 Covid deaths, and just the seventh in the world after the USA, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and Peru.
The surge in new cases has caused huge pressure on healthcare services, with an estimated 80,000 NHS workers currently said to be either isolating or unable to work due to illness.
