Covid NHS incident level remains at three despite government alert

The UK’s covid-19 alert level was upgraded on Monday 21 September from level three, meaning the virus is in “general circulation” to level four, which indicates “transmission is high or rising exponentially,” following recommendations from the UK’s four chief medical officers and the joint biosecurity centre.

But NHSE has confirmed to HSJ that its own alert level, which was downgraded from four to three at the end of July, has not changed.

The shift from four to three indicates the incident is managed regionally rather than nationally, and it requires a little less daily reporting of statistics.

The number of patients in hospital with covid and on mechanical ventilation has been rising quickly in recent weeks, though not as steeply as in March.

Sources at a number of hospitals in current covid hotspots such as the North East and Greater Manchester told HSJ that, while covid admissions were rising, this increase was distinctly slower than earlier this year, and they were not moving to a major incident basis. One said it was “still manageable”.

NHSE declared a level four national incident in response to the covid-19 pandemic on 30 January. The move allowed its teams to take command of all NHS resources across England. It moved the management of the NHS to a series of incident “cells”.

Bosses at NHSE reduced the alert to level three on 31 July, and told providers the NHSmust “return to near normal levels of non-covid health services” after thousands of routine operations and appointments were postponed during the first wave.

NHSE has said trusts should deliver “at least 80 per cent of their last year’s activity for both overnight electives and for outpatient/daycase procedures, rising to 90 per cent in October”.

HSJ asked NHSE if it wished to comment further on the incident level.