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UK in 'eye of the storm' amid surging new coronavirus cases

Britain Virus Outbreak New Years Eve
Posted at 11:54 AM, Jan 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-01 11:54:32-05

LONDON (AP) — British medical authorities are warning that hospitals around the country face a perilous few weeks amid surging new coronavirus infections blamed on a new virus variant.

Concerns are mounting about the ability of the already stretched National Health Service to handle the anticipated increase in the number of people seeking treatment for COVID-19.

Field hospitals that were constructed in the early days of the pandemic but that were subsequently mothballed are being reactivated.

The Royal College of Nursing’s England director says the U.K. is in the “eye of the storm."

Over 55,280 new infections and another 613 deaths were recorded Friday, putting the U.K. on track to once again overtake Italy as Europe’s worst-hit country in the pandemic.