The leader of Birmingham City Council has urged the Government to “act now” in order to avoid the catastrophic case numbers that are currently being seen in certain boroughs of London.
The leader, Ian Ward, cited the 36% increase in cases in Birmingham over the past week, with hospitals being at breaking point in the region.
Speaking to BBC Radio West Midlands, Ward said:
“University Hospital Birmingham has 98% of its intensive care beds occupied and Sandwell and City (hospitals trust) has 100% of its intensive care beds occupied.”
Ward claims that Birmingham is not in a position to wait until cases get into the thousands because the city simply doesn’t have the healthcare facilities to deal with the numbers that are being seen in areas such as London.
Leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has called on Boris Johnson to put in place further restrictions for the country to curb an “out of control” virus.
Speaking after the Prime Minister’s reference to “tougher restrictions”, Starmer said:
“That delay has been the source of so many problems. So, I say, bring in those restrictions now, national restrictions, within the next 24 hours. That has to be the first step to controlling the virus.”
The UK has had over 50,000 cases for the past 6 days, something that hasn’t happened since the pandemic took hold in March.
