So really how bad is coronavirus in the UK? Could it be worse?
A little look elsewhere does show that there are places which are worse off than the UK. Those who do not speak French may well have missed the latest covid-19 news concerning Guadeloupe. It certainly looks like things are considerably more serious there than they are in the UK and the locals are not as well off as the British.
It has been reported that the number of available beds has more than doubled and yet the system cannot cope. They have reached a position where only patients who are less than 60 years old and without previous medical history are now being admitted to intensive care at the hospital at Pointe-à-Pitre. There is no patient there now over 65 years of age and the average age reported on 17th August was just 54, and dropping as younger people are coming in.
The rationale now adopted by the hospital is that they are having to be selective over who can receive intensive care treatment. The daily rate of news cases as shown by Johns Hopkins tables has shot up suddenly to over 8000 per day.
So are the British being over-paranoid about whether it is safe or not? The latest 24 hour period number of news cases is down on the previous day at 32058 but that still gives an overall increase over the past seven days of almost 222000, increase of 10.4%. Deaths remain fairly constant and new patients admitted are up over the seven days to 5869, an increase of 6.6%. Compared with figures earlier in the year the UK does not face the same crisis at the moment as Guadeloupe.
An interesting article on the BBC new site asks is catching covid better than more vaccine on the basis that the vast majority of British are now either vaccinated or have developed some level of immunity from catching the disease. The whole article can be seen here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58270098
As may be imagined there are fiercely opposing views on the subject from both sides of the argument. It also contains some interesting detail about the differences between difference vaccines and the natural immunity which can be gained from catching the virus in the first place.
Nevertheless the Guadaloupe situation just shows how difficult the pandemic is in different parts of the world and also how there seem to be delays in the disease getting embedded in some parts of the world. The trouble with that is that it gives more opportunity for new variants to develop. You can go to Guadeloupe and it looks really nice – it is currently on the British amber list; however with things changing that could change too. If you do go, do be careful not to stand underneath a coconut tree. One of those coconuts dropping on your head could be fatal.
Adrian Leopard 21-08-21
Photo Margit Umbach