By Ben Kerrigan-
A minister has suggested that COVID restrictions could be reintroduced if a rising number of cases has an impact on the NHS backlog.
The warning, which was accompanied by contradictions in his own statement about hospitalizations due to Covid-19, follows official data suggesting that 2.7 million people in private households are estimated to have had COVID-19 over the past week, despite the government announcing its plans to live with covid.
Minister Lord Kamall(pictured), told Parliament that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was still “focusing on the backlog”, but prepared to revisit the introduction of restrictions if the impact on backlogs becomes serious again.
However, the minister contradicted himself in statements he made to parliament when he acknowledged that hospitalization rates for covid were influenced by reasons other than covid, and by high testing rates in hospitals.
The minister earlier said: “We continue to see COVID-19 case rates and hospitalisations rising in all age groups, with the largest increases in hospitalisations and ICU admissions in those aged 75 and older.
“The largest proportion of those hospitalised are for reasons other than COVID, however COVID is identified due to the increasing case rates in the community and the high rate of testing in hospital, including among those with no respiratory systems.
“Current data does not point to cases becoming more severe.” He added: “We are always ready to stand up measures should the case rates rise so much that our health system was under pressure, but also what we have managed to do is break the link between infections and hospitalisations, and hospitalisations and death.
It was slightly refreshing that the minister acknowledged that hospitalization rates were in many cases due to reasons other than COVID, and that the high rates of testing in hospitals were part of the rises in hospitalization rates, making reference to covid as part of the reason for higher hospitalization rates, not being fully genuine.
During lockdown restrictions, several hospitals in the Uk were notorious for exaggerating hospitalizations rates arising from covid, by including all those who arrived in hospitals for reasons besides covid, once they tested positive for covid during routine testing.
Several media publications also repeated the fraudulent figures given by hospitals, with this publication and The Daily Mail, and occasionally Sky News, taking the leading role in challenging false information in the reporting of fake news, which a high percentage of the British public could see through.
Restrictions were needed during some periods of the lockdown, but there were times when for reasons best known to hospital chiefs, the wool was being pulled over the public’s eyes when official figures were given.