There is hope the coronavirus crisis is starting to improve in Birmingham as the number of cases has started to fall.
In the week to January 13 the area saw 723 cases per 100,000 people in the population – a slight drop from the previous week, which saw 753 cases per 100,000.
It comes as the strict measures of the third national lockdown, which was imposed on January 6, may be starting to take effect.
The days in the lead up to the lockdown announcement had seen a sharp increase in Birmingham’s case rate, which was 778 per 100,000 on the week to January 9, up from 627 on the week to January 2.
The signs of a slight improvement on the number of cases in the region are reflected across the country, as the latest figures show cases are falling in 89% of areas in England.
But NHS bosses in the West Midlands have warned hospital admissions for Covid-19 are still not expected to peak in the area for another 10 days.
Professor David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust which runs the city’s New Cross hospital, said on Friday: ‘The NHS is absolutely struggling, there’s no question about that, and if we just keep breaking all the rules [we will] keep getting more and more people [in admissions].
‘Today’s Covid-19 rate is my waiting list for people waiting to go into intensive care in two weeks’ time.
‘I am predicting around about January 27, is going to be the peak.’
He added the military will be arriving in the region to help NHS trusts in Birmingham and the Black Country – Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton – this week.
‘We’ve got to take the pressure off and also say people have got a part to play in this,’ he said.
‘There will be military personnel arriving next week within my organisation and they will be working under the supervision of senior clinicians and nursing teams and carrying out a variety of duties. I believe that is similar across the West Midlands conurbation.’
He also said the opening of a second mass vaccination centre in the region – after the opening of the Birmingham Millennium Point venue last week – was also ‘imminent’ in Dudley.
Professor Loughton further revealed huge emotional toll of the pandemic on NHS staff, explaining how even seasoned doctors were ‘having trouble sleeping’.
‘The most difficult thing for staff within the NHS; nobody – but nobody – went to medical school, went into nurse training or came into the health service to watch people die.,’ he said.
‘That wasn’t what they trained for.’
Hospitals in Birmingham and the West Midlands are now treating more patients than they were at the first peak in April 2020.
At England’s largest hospital trust, University Hospitals Birmingham – England’s largest hospital trust – bosses increased capacity for Covid-positive patients to 1,000 beds, and more than doubled critical care space up to 280.
The trust had 917 patients with coronavirus on Friday, which included 135 people in critical care.
It also houses the largest intensive treatment unit in the country at the Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
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