Prof Stephen Powis, the medical director for NHS England, has told the Downing Street coronavirus data briefing that infection rates are continuing to rise across the UK.
He said those who ended up needing hospital treatment for Covid-19 typically did so around two weeks after infection, meaning there was a lag between infection and hospital admissions data.
“By and large, we are seeing increases in the number of people being admitted into hospital.”
But he said there were some areas where Covid measures were beginning to have an effect, such as the north west of England.
“We are beginning to see some plateauing of numbers of patients in hospital and perhaps some decrease in the North West, but you can see in other areas such as the Midlands numbers are very much still rising.”
– Most people following Covid guidance – Hopkins
Public Health England’s Dr Susan Hopkins starts the UK government data briefing by looking at the first post-lockdown opinions and Lifestyle survey performed by the Office for National Statistics between 5 and 8 November.
She says at this point England had entered its national lockdown, Wales was under a firebreak lockdown which ended on 9 November and Scotland had parts of the coutnry in higher level trestrictions under its five level system.
Referring to a chart of the survey which shows that most people are following the guidance, she says 81% of adults avoided contact with older and other vulnerable people in the previous seven days
She said there was a “very high take up of face coverings outside the home” with 98% of adults wearing them.
Dr Hopkins adds that 38% are working from home because of the pandemic compared to normal working from home rates of about 12% in the previous year.
She says 89% of people wash hands when they return home from a public place.
