Audio By Carbonatix
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt is calling for schools and borders to close "right away" as he warns the pressures facing hospitals are "off-the -scale worse" than previous winter crises.
The chairman of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee says, while in previous years, elective care has been cancelled in January to protect emergency care that too is now under severe pressure, with "record trolley waits for the very sickest patients".
"Even more worryingly, fewer heart attack patients appear to be presenting in ICUs, perhaps because they are not dialling 999 when they need to," the Conservative MP said on Twitter.
"[The number one] lesson is countries that act early & decisively save lives & get their economies back to normal faster.
"We, therefore, cannot afford to wait: all schools should be closed, international travel stopped, household mixing limited and the tier system reviewed so that the highest tier really does bring down infection levels (as with the first lockdown)," Hunt concluded.
Latest Stories
-
Cagliari eye loan swoop for Ibrahim Sulemana amid Parma and Sassuolo interest
51 minutes -
Morocco beat Nigeria on penalties to set up AFCON final against Senegal
4 hours -
NaCCA Director-General apologises as withdrawn teacher manual sparks national outrage
4 hours -
Mane destroys Salah’s Afcon dream again – will he get another chance?
5 hours -
‘If Flick hadn’t come, I would have left Barca’ – Raphinha
5 hours -
Real Madrid stunned by second division Albacete in Copa del Rey
5 hours -
Tottenham sign Gallagher from Atletico for £35m
5 hours -
Amateur stuns world’s best Jannik Sinner to win A$1m in Melbourne
5 hours -
FBI searches home of Washington Post reporter in classified documents probe
6 hours -
Trump administration pauses immigrant visa processing for 75 countries
6 hours -
UK–Ghana crack down on immigration crime as fugitive smuggler jailed
6 hours -
Ghana’s Benjamin Arhin shines on Internacional debut with Man of the Match display
6 hours -
Stanbic Bank Ghana maintain top rank in Customer Experience Leadership in 2025 KPMG Assessment
6 hours -
Newmont-backed AI smart lab powers Kona D/A students to victory at Ghana Robotics CompetitionÂ
7 hours -
Venezuelan acting president says hundreds of prisoners have been released since December
7 hours
