HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS FOR COVID-19 IN ENGLAND ZOOM 20%

England's hospital admission rate for COVID-19 patients soared to 20 per cent higher in December than during the first peak of the country's COVID-19 epidemic, recently released figures suggest.

National Health Service medical director Prof. Stephen Powis said nearly 23,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19 were being treated in hospitals at the end of December, Isobel Frodsham reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

There are currently around 13,000 more people in hospital with COVID-19 across the country than in April. A total of 242,307 COVID-positive patients have been treated by the NHS in England since the outbreak began.

The figures were published on the same day pharmacies in England started rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to patients as part of an effort to speed up the number of people being inoculated against the disease.

Chain stores Boots and Superdrug as well as a number of independent pharmacies were administering the vaccines from Thursday, the NHS said, with a total of six launching the scheme first.

That figure will expand to 70 next week and "hundreds" by the end of the month. "Pharmacists are playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19 and this is a welcome step towards their skills being used more widely to support vaccinations in their local communities," Prof. Claire Anderson, chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s English Pharmacy Board said.

Pharmacies in Wales are due to begin vaccine roll outs this week while the Northern Irish health department told dpa talks were ongoing to decide a date. Scotland has yet to confirm when their schemes will launch.

WEEKLY FEATURE : JOSE MARI CHAN AND THE CHRISTMAS ANTHEM