Preston and South Ribble’s latest coronavirus infection rates and cases for New Year’s Day as NHS at ‘breaking point’ in many places

An icy snowman in Haslam Park on New Year's Day Pic: Tony Worrall — An icy snowman in Haslam Park on New Year’s Day Pic: Tony Worrall

Preston and South Ribble’s latest coronavirus cases and infection rates have been confirmed as 2021 begins.

Cases for New Year’s Eve (31 December 2020) were 48 new Covid-19 cases in Preston.

Medics ‘burning out’ as Covid surges

Vice-president of the Royal College of the Emergency Medicine, Adrian Boyle, said frontline NHS staff are ‘tired, helpless and at risk of burnout’.

He said there was frustration within the medical ranks at how the public were not following rules.

Dr Boyle said: “We are worried about staff burnout, staff are tired, they have worked really hard over the summer, they have put up with a lot of disruption.

“This time people are frustrated, this is now an entirely preventable disease, we know what we did in spring made a lot of this go away. There’s also now a vaccine.

“The idea that we are dealing with something that can’t be controlled doesn’t wash, this is a preventable disease and we need to be preventing it.

“There are a lot of things we could be doing as a society to stop this spreading and a lot of it is simple stuff around washing your hands, keeping your distance, wearing a face covering.”

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UK-wide cases were above 50,000 again for New Year’s Day, with 53,285 confirmed cases – below the record high set on New Year’s Eve of 55,892 confirmed cases. There were 613 deaths related to coronavirus on New Year’s Day in the UK.

There have been called for emergency services workers to be prioritised for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, John Apter, led calls for police officers and ambulance workers to receive the vaccine after the most vulnerable groups and NHS workers.

Mr Apter said: “It’s time for the Prime Minister to do the right thing for police officers in the thick of this pandemic.

“I am calling on him to back my colleagues in their time of need.

“This is certainly not about jumping the queue in front of the most vulnerable members of society or those on the NHS frontline.

“It’s about ensuring policing is resilient enough to cope with the demands of the pandemic and that my colleagues can continue to support the public during these exceptional times.”

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Mr Apter said an increasing number of police officers were off work through sickness or having to self-isolate.

His calls were also echoed by the College of Paramedics, David Davis, who told Radio 4: “The bit that is really worrying for us is that quite often these paramedics and other ambulance staff are in the back of these ambulances with patients with Covid, with very high levels of viral load, and the risk to them is also extremely high.

“We need to protect the staff we’ve got and that’s why the college is calling on the Government to make sure we can access vaccination for ambulance service staff who are there at the front line in those ambulances with patients who are terribly poorly with Covid.

“It is certainly the case that ambulance staff, in our opinion, should be prioritised.”