A ‘major incident’ has been declared by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan amid the rising number of patients being admitted to hospitals for coronavirus.
Mr Khan’s emergency declaration comes as the infection rate in London has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people.
He said the NHS in London is at risk of being “overwhelmed”, adding that the situation in the Capital is “critical” as hospitals could run out of beds for patients in the coming weeks.
“We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point,” Sadiq Khan said. “If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.’
He added: “The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically.”
In the past, major incidents have been declared for occurrences such as the Grenfell Tower fire, and the terror attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge.
Sadiq Khan’s declaration comes a day after the Chief Executive of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, said that more than 800 patients a day are being admitted to London hospitals with COVID-19.