Coronavirus: will crisis in NHS hospitals trigger lockdown tightening?

Covid patients occupying 30,000 beds as government scrambles to stem rate of infections

A paramedic wheels a patient into Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London.
(Image credit: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

The government is considering stronger lockdown measures in a bid to prevent NHS hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.

A total of 30,758 people were receiving treatment in hospitals across the country yesterday, up from 29,462 the previous day, according to official data. And the number of critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation beds has almost doubled since 27 December to just under 3,000.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.