THE UK is facing a "problematic" Christmas as Covid has begun "penetrating" the older vulnerable groups, an expert warned this morning.
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said the UK is "running quite hot" with high cases and rising deaths - a concern this early into the colder months.
Hopes of a normal Christmas are starting to increase, but with no enforced social distancing and high case rates continuing - with flu still to come - scientists are worried.
Prof Van-Tam told the BBC: "Christmas, and indeed all of the darker winter months, are potentially going to be problematic.
"Deaths are increasing - there might be some artefacts in the very latest figure - but essentially deaths are increasing.
"If you then look at hospital admissions, those have plateaued in the last four days. And if you look at the total number of patients in hospital with Covid, those have gone down in the last two or three days, but only a small bit.
"So what that tells me is that we have to just wait and see a bit longer - this could be a pause before things go up, it could be the very first signs that things are beginning to stabilise but at a high rate.
"On cases, they are now starting to fall, but that mainly reflects the fact that this big wave we've had in teenagers is now starting to slip away.
"But my worry is that the deaths are increasing and that shows that the infection is now starting to penetrate into those older age groups."
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Christmas under threat as Covid ‘penetrates elderly’ causing deaths to rise, warns JVT
https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/16618863/problematic-christmas-uk-covid-hitting-elderly/
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