The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced that he is standing down the ‘major incident’ status in London, but has warned the city will remain on high alert due to a significant number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals.
The Mayor took the decision on 8 January to declare a ‘major incident’ due to the rapid spread of the virus and the impact that increased COVID-19 cases was having on the NHS.
The decision was regularly reviewed by City Hall and leaders from NHS London, local authorities, Public Health England and the emergency services in the capital. Following the gradual improvement in the number of cases in the capital and the announcement from the Joint Biosecurity Centre that the UK COVID alert level has now moved from level 5 to level 4 in all regions the Mayor – as the formal Chair of the London Resilience Forum – took the decision to stand down the ‘major incident’.
However, the Mayor has warned that the capital is on high alert and that this remains a ‘chronic incident’ as the NHS in London is still under real pressure and Londoners should continue to follow the rules and stay at home. Today, there are more than four times the number of COVID-19 patients in our hospitals than there were when Ministers announced the re-opening of hospitality and other businesses on 13 June last year, and more than 10 times the number of deaths reported per day.
While the number of cases has reduced since the Mayor declared a ‘major incident’ in January, there remain 2,371 COVID-19 patients in London hospitals and 577 in mechanical ventilation beds.
The Mayor has praised the heroic work of the capital’s emergency services during this period, with London firefighters and police officers from the Met both volunteering to drive ambulances at a time when London Ambulance Service faced one of the busiest times in its history with up to 8,000 calls a day.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The number of COVID-19 cases in our city is reducing, which is down to the heroic efforts of Londoners who have continued to stay at home and followed the rules.
“The Government’s roadmap shows the path we need to stay on to ease restrictions and the roll out of the vaccine means there is light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel.
“Due to the reduction in COVID-19 case numbers, we are now able to stand down the ‘major incident’ in London, but this is not the time to take our foot off the pedal.
“Cases remain high – there are four times the number of patients in our hospitals than when restrictions were lifted last summer, and the incident level remains chronic. That’s why we must, as a city, remain on high alert.
“Our NHS and emergency services have gone above and beyond during this most difficult time for our city. We must repay them by continuing to follow the rules and taking the vaccine when offered the chance to do so.”
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