i'm joined today by stephen powis, medical director of nhs england and on my left by professorjane eddlestonexecutive medical director of manchester university's foundation trust. may have the first slide, please? iwould like foundation trust. may have the first slide, please? i would like to begin by showing you some data which is releva nt to by showing you some data which is relevant to where we are now. if we could please focus on the top side, the sliderfor the could please focus on the top side, the slider for the united could please focus on the top side, the sliderfor the united kingdom, although you will see largely the same curbs and shapes represented for countries of the uk. —— curves and shapes. the number of cases by specimen date in the uk, you will see. that is without any double counting, patients who have had two tests. data on an aid from the 1st of february on the left through to mid—october on the right. you will see very clearly the first peak that corresponded to the first wave of that pandemic, which we experienced in the spring. comparing that with the second beat, p

i am joined stephen powis from nhs england. good afternoon.steve powers of nhs england and jonathan van—tam, deputy chief medical officer. across the world, the countries that are waging the most successful fights against coronavirus are adopting regional and local measures to protect their populations, and that is why we launched the three local covid alert levels for england, with intervention based on the prevalence in local areas. since then, we've been undertaking discussions with local leaders in those parts of the country which are currently bearing the brunt of the second wave of this epidemic. before i update you on those discussions, i will ask jonathan van—tam to brief us on the latest data nationally, and in greater manchester. thank you, jonathan. thank you, prime minister. first slide, please. i am jonathan. thank you, prime minister. first slide, please. lam beginning today's data briefing with a slide i showed on the 12th of october, and i'm doing that on purpose. first of all, to remind you that there are two maps of england h

stephen powis.imley. a very sobering news conference and it has at the moment it is the north—east and north—west of england are bearing the brunt of covid—19 cases, but it is a nationwide picture absolutely. to think they're worried about, this inevitability that it does notjust stay in the younger age groups. with lots of stu d e nts younger age groups. with lots of students getting ill, but it bleeds into these older age groups too. the other thing is that they are worried, that really all of the data across the uk is pointing in the wrong direction so even though, as we saw in those class, the northwest, northeast and yorkshire are the worst affected at the moment when it comes to hospitalisations,. there are also added that essentially they are doubling every two weeks, hospitalisations right across the board. did you hear much optimism that the measures that are being brought in are enough now to turn things around? well, i think you have just got a sense from them that the almost, a sense of

the nhs‘s medical director, professor stephen powis, announced the hospitals in sunderland, manchester of staff across hotspot areas. fiona trottjoins us now from sunderland. fiona. this one opened in may and it's never been used. in the coming months it could be saving lives. over the past four months alone hospitals in the north—east and north—west of england have seen a sevenfold increase in the number of patients being admitted with coronavirus. at manchester royal infirmary alone 30% of its critical ca re infirmary alone 30% of its critical care beds are now taken up with covid patients. the aim of sites like these is to be on standby to help ease some of that pressure. here there are 460 beds, 500 at harrogate and 750 in manchester. the trustee has made it clear it will be responsible for deciding whether covid patients use these beds, patients without the virus but still needing urgent care, and it will be responsible for staffing. do they recruit from the military? and they will be regular testing for staff too, whether or not they have symptoms. fiona trott, thank you. the tim

because of this, the nhs medical director stephen powis says no to hospitals in manchester, sunderlandncrease in virus —related hospital admissions, what are doctors on the front line seeing? we can speak now to dr rajesh kumar, an anaesthetist at royal preston hospital. good afternoon to you. just tell us what is happening with cases across preston, and what you are seeing yourself with your own eyes in your own hospital. good afternoon, reeta. yeah, well, what we are seeing as there has been a sudden very alarming increase in the number of patients here. not so long ago, we had zero patients on our wards and nonein had zero patients on our wards and none in acu but suddenly we have seen a spurt of cases. now we have got more than 50 patients on our wards, and also about half a dozen in acu. so this has increased quite rapidly, so i'm extremely, extremely concerned about this. so it has increased rapidly and i suppose your concern might be that it might increase at this rate unless measures are taken? absolutely. when we had wave one, we stopped doing anything other than covid and eme

because of this, the nhs medical director stephen powis says nightingale hospitals in manchester, sunderlandith this increase in virus related hospital admissions, what are doctors on the front line seeing? drjoel dunning is a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon working at south tees hospitals nhs foundation trust. he spent two months working as an icu nurse to help during lockdown. good afternoon to you, nice to see you again. of course we have spoken to you at various times in the last six months. how would you assess the situation now, are you seeing an increase in numbers? yes, absolutely, just like many other hospitals in the north of england we are seeing an increase in numbers. in march at our peak we had 150 patients in our hospital. that went all the way down to just four in the summer, in august, and as of today, we've got 33 patients in our hospital, and we've got five patients in critical care. so it is rising, we are all getting ready to face whatever comes, but the numbers are going up. we saw some data given by governments's medical advisers this morning that suggested that numb