Revealed: Tier 3 Did Bring Down Number Of Covid Patients, But Tier 1 Did Nothing
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital has fallen in areas that were under tier 3 lockdown, but risen in areas that were in tier 1, analysis by HuffPost UK has revealed.
It may help explain how some areas that were only in tier 1 before the national lockdown have ended up in tier 3 from Wednesday.
Our findings bear out warnings by Public Health England’s Dr Susan Hopkins and the government’s Sage (scientific advisory group for emergencies) advisers that tier 1 measures were insufficient to slow the pandemic.
Overall, the the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell last week for the first time since August – driven by the tier 3 areas, with tier 2 areas maintaining relatively flat numbers and tier 1 hospitals seeing more patients than before.
After reaching a peak of 14,712 hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients on November 23, the national number has fallen by 1,000 – a 7% decrease in less than a week.
The fall in patients marks a sharp reversal from a fortnight ago, when the number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients was increasing at a rate of 19% a week.
Bed occupancy by Covid-19 patients is falling quickest in the north-west and Yorkshire, where many areas were placed in tier 3 – the highest level of local restrictions – prior to the national lockdown on November 5.
Liverpool was the only city to be placed in tier 3 when the government unveiled the three-tier system in October. Within two weeks of the announcement, Liverpool University Hospitals Trust had almost twice as many Covid-19 patients as any other hospital trust in England. But since then, the number of Covid-19 patients occupying beds in the trust’s hospitals has fallen by 45%.
Greater Manchester entered tier 3 on October 23. Collectively, the seven acute trusts that operate across the area have seen a 15% fall in patients with Covid-19 following a peak on November 16.
In the Midlands and south of England, however, the number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients...