LONDON (Reuters) – The ambulance service in northwest England, one of the areas worst-hit by COVID-19, said it had declared a major incident on Monday over an exceptionally high volume of calls, especially in the Greater Manchester area.
Greater Manchester was one of the first parts of the country to face renewed restrictions after the end of England’s first national lockdown, but despite measures being in force for months the level of infections remains high in the city.
The area is currently at the “Very High” alert level, the highest of three bands in England’s new tiered response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are exceptionally busy this evening,” North West Ambulance Service said on Twitter, urging people to call only for life-threatening emergencies.
“We are trying our best to reach patients as soon as we possibly can,” it said, warning callers that if their condition was not life-threatening they may be asked to go to hospital by their own means.
Declaring a major incident is a formal step that allows managers to respond to the problem they are facing by doing things such as asking people to work overtime or calling in extra staff.
The Manchester Evening News paper reported that part of the difficulty was the number of paramedics isolating due to COVID-19.
A sharp rise in infections has led the government to impose a second national lockdown in England, which is due to come into force on Thursday.
Britain has the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe.
Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alex Richardson