Coronavirus infection rates are falling slower than the NHS expected during the lockdown as it is feared the peak will not come until next month, and NHS chief has warned.
Chris Hopson, Chief Executive of NHS Providers, told MPs that hospitals face worsening pressures in spite of the national lockdowns, the Mirror reports.
Giving evidence at a Health and Social Care Committee, he said: "It seems now pretty clear the infection rate is not going to go down as quickly as it did in the first phase, and it's going to go down more slowly because of the increased transmissibility of the strain.
"We were hoping for a sharp peak that came sooner and shorter.
"So something, for example, where we saw the peak and started to crest it in mid to late January.
"It now looks like the peak for NHS demand may actually now be in February."
He said now if that's right "that's going to basically mean there's a higher level, and a more extended period of pressure on the NHS than we were expecting even just a week ago".
NHS England data has shown 32,070 Covid-19 patients were in English hospitals as of 8am on Monday.
This is up 20 per cent compared to a week ago and up 81 per cent since Christmas Day.
Another 529 people died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus as of Monday, bring the UK death toll to 81,960, although separate figures have shown there have been 97,000 Covid-19 deaths in the UK.
Mr Hopson warned core staff could leave the NHS due to the pressures they had faced during the pandemic. He said there had been a “mismatch” in the NHS between rising demand and its capacity for 10 years.
He told MPs that even before the pandemic, staff had been expected to work “harder and harder” to cope with this increase in demand.
Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, told a Downing Street press conference on Monday that vaccination would gradually lead to a fall in people in hospital but he also said we had not yet reached the peak.
More than 1,200 vaccination sites in England will be in place by the end of the week, including those at community pharmacies.
