Matt Hancock warns that cancer patients will only be treated if Covid-19 is “under control”.

Cancer patients are only guaranteed treatment if Covid-19 remains "under control," Matt Hancock claimed today when he spoke about an error in an Excel spreadsheet that may have left tens of thousands of British people ignorant of the are infected, was roasted by MPs virus.

The health minister claimed it was "critically important for everyone to understand how best to keep cancer going by suppressing the disease," suggesting hundreds of thousands of patients face delays in scheduled surgery and chemotherapy could if the outbreak continues to increase.

Major surgeries were canceled and patients missed potentially life-saving therapy in the spring as fighting Covid-19 was the sole focus of healthcare instead of cancer and other gruesome diseases.

Almost 2.5 million people missed cancer screening, referral, or treatment at the height of the lockdown, despite never overwhelming the NHS – despite fears the pandemic could cripple it.

Experts now fear that the number of people dying from delays caused by treating coronavirus patients could even be responsible for as many deaths as the pandemic itself.

Surgeons have been concerned about calling for hospital beds to be "fenced in" for operations scheduled during the pandemic to avoid the spring break, which saw patients face a "tsunami of rejections" as health services focus on fighting the coronavirus concentrated.

However, on a bruise in the House of Commons, Hancock warned Covid-19 again that cancer treatment could be interrupted and told MPs that controlling the virus would allow the NHS to offer the treatment we have for cancer and other deadly diseases need to restore & # 39 ;.

He said, "It is important for everyone to understand that the best way to keep cancer services running is to suppress the disease. The better the disease is under control, the more we can recover and get cancer treatments." Continue."

Labor has also viciously injured Mr Hancock's recent mistake in which officials missed 16,000 positive test results due to a catastrophic Excel error. It is estimated that around 50,000 of their contacts have not been found.

Jonathan Ashworth, Secretary for Shadow Health, who fired at all cylinders after his counterpart failed to give an accurate answer, now said, “So there are essentially thousands of people who have been exposed to the virus and are likely to be walking around without even knowing they have been exposed and could infect people, and he can't even tell us if they were found. & # 39;

No. 10 admitted this afternoon that only 63 percent of the "missing" 16,000 Covid-19 cases were contacted by NHS Test and Trace. Most contacts will be followed up and asked to self-isolate within 48 hours. Due to the ongoing delays with the system, many continue to circulate in the community after being exposed to the virus. Experts have warned that the system will only be effective if the vast majority of cases are followed up quickly.

The UK recorded 76 coronavirus deaths today, including ten in Wales, as the number of newly identified cases rose to 14,542 nationwide. This is believed to be far from the height of the pandemic, with an estimated 100,000 new infections each day.

While the country depends on the disaster in the Excel spreadsheet:

• Boris Johnson promises to reverse the advance of the state of Covid-19 in our daily lives in a speech at the "virtual" party conference of the Conservatives.
• The number of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales is up 55 percent, with 215 victims per week, but is still 2.5 percent of what it was in the spring.
• The Prime Minister is preparing to introduce a new three-tier traffic light lock system for the country.
• Hospital admissions are still at six percent of their highest level in the south, but have risen to 30 percent of that level in the north, according to an analysis by MailOnline.
• The UK today announced another 14,542 cases of coronavirus and 76 deaths from the disease.

The government's beleaguered test and trace system is under re-examination after it is found 16,000 positive cases were missed due to an Excel spreadsheet error. Cases were cut off after reaching a certain number of lines.

After being identified, Public Health England officials said the cases were forwarded to NHS Test and Trace "immediately" and thanked the contact tracers for their "extra efforts" over the weekend to clean up the backlog.

The catastrophic oversight that officials are accusing of soon-defunct Public Health England resulted in the missing cases not being contacted and traced despite testing positive for the virus, meaning it may have continued to spread across the region Community.

But Mr Hancock, who heads the Department of Health, only had one question today about Mr Ashworth's mistake.

Mr Ashworth fired a broadside at the beleaguered Health Secretary this morning, saying, "Given that the ONS said today that deaths have increased for three straight weeks and the spread of the virus is increasing, he can make the resentment and the Anger About The Virus Understand Excel Spreadsheet Error?

“And can he tell us today what he couldn't tell us yesterday? How many of the 14,000 contacts – not the index cases, the contacts – have been followed and how many are now isolating? & # 39;

Test and Trace approval had still not reached everyone whose results were not reported. Mr. Hancock replied, “Well, we have obviously continued to contact both the index cases and the contacts. Of course, the total number of contacts depends on how many contacts each index case has. So that this information is of course made available as usual after completion.

"But you can't know in advance how many contacts there are because you have to do the intervening interviews with the index cases first."

Summing up his ever-growing litany of errors, Mr Ashworth summarized: “So there are essentially thousands of people who have been exposed to the virus and are likely to wander around unaware that they were exposed and could infect people, and he can us don't even say if they were found. & # 39;

He also yesterday disapproved of the government's admission that the vaccine is being given to less than half of the country – and not to the entire population as previously suggested.

"I listened carefully to what he said about a vaccine yesterday, given the news that the government is planning to vaccinate around 30 million people – nearly 50 percent of the population," he said.

"Can I tell him that the entire population was expected to be vaccinated, not least because he said at the Downing Street press conference," Given the scale of the crisis, I would hope that we have a vaccine and everyone would Have vaccine "- these are his words.

"So for the 50 percent of people who won't be vaccinated, can he tell us how quickly it will take to get back to normal?"

The Minister of Health claimed: “As he well knows, no decisions have been made about vaccine distribution. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Vaccination advises the government on the appropriate clinical prioritization of vaccines. You have published a preliminary guide setting the order of priority as a preliminary guide. However, we are waiting for the clinical trial data of the vaccine before we get to a, um, clinically validated full roll-out plan.

“We are now drawing up a logistical plan. However, in making decisions about the priority of the clinical order, we will seek the evidence from the committee. & # 39;

Labor vice-chair Angela Rayner reported to the Minister of Health this morning asking him to step down on his "shameful" way of dealing with the crisis.

She described Mr Hancock in an interview on Good Morning Britain as "a total disaster for the country" and said the recent smear mistakes have made Britain a "mockery" around the world.

Most of the questions Mr Hancock faced related to how the government was handling other parts of the Covid-19 pandemic, including cancer treatment.

He said that commons operations for cancer patients may be reversed in the face of spiraling coronavirus infections: “It's important for everyone to understand that the best way to keep cancer services running is to suppress the disease , and the more the disease is, the more we are in control, the more we can recover and continue with cancer treatment.

"We all have an obligation to ensure that fighting this virus not only reduces the number of deaths directly from the coronavirus, but also enables us to get the best possible treatment we need for cancer and other deadly diseases restore. "

He said cancer referrals had reached more than 90 percent of prepandemic levels in July, while 95 percent of all cases were treated within 31 days.

To maintain these levels and avoid future cancellations, the government plans to free wards in private hospitals rented by the NHS "Covid-19" so that they can continue to treat cancer and other diseases while reducing the number of hospitalizations due to the Can fight virus.

Coronavirus hospital admissions are still rising – but remain well below the high seen in the spring. In the south it is only six percent of the level in April, in the north it is 30 percent.

Royal Stoke University Hospital, which transferred its cancer care to Nuffield Health in Newcastle-under-Lyme at the start of the pandemic, was cited as an example of what others should accomplish.

Mr. Hancock said, “Because (private hospitals) are very rarely under pressure from emergency care, we can ensure that they are part of the 'green' part of health care.

"(This means) that they are as free of coronavirus as possible, so they can do all kinds of cancer treatments."

He added: "These recommendations will lead to the necessary action and it is very important that the message is spread that the NHS is open and that anyone who is worried about cancer should come forward and that we can save lives." . "

According to Cancer Research UK, nearly 2.5 million people missed cancer tests and treatments during the first wave of the pandemic.

They said more than 2.1 million are still waiting for important screenings for breast, cervical and colon cancer. Another 290,000 have missed urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumors. More than a million women missed breast cancer screening at the height of the pandemic, Breast Cancer Now said.

If these additional procedures had been followed, some would have saved or prolonged lives, giving families additional invaluable time

When answering questions in the House of Commons this morning, the Minister of Health was told to show respect to local authorities by helping public health teams run testing and tracking systems.

Labor Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) told Commons, "Yesterday the Minister of Health told me we put this money on councils." What kind of money is that? He announced 7 million pounds, divided between nine councils. That's about £ 12 billion for Serco. That doesn't bring the extra money into the councils, does it?

“So may I ask him to show his respect to the members of this House, and especially to our constituents, by answering the question: when will he stop relying on the outsourcing giants and support the local health teams with the resources they need? ? because that's how he and this country will repair Test, Trace and Isolate. & # 39;

Mr. Hancock replied, “We are having an open dialogue with councils and local mayors about what to do. But I just want to urge him to think on behalf of all of his constituents in Sefton that it is better to support all of the efforts to combat this virus, not just part of it. & # 39;

Mr Hancock was also challenged by former Health Secretary and Conservative party leader Jeremy Hunt. who asked if measures were being taken to help patients with long covid.

"My real, honorable friend knows that for every person who dies from coronavirus, at least one other person has long-term symptoms for more than three months – which means shortness of breath, chronic fatigue and often cannot return to normal work," he said before leaving ask if clinics would be available for them.

Mr. Hancock said the Department of Health was working to finish these clinics and was "in the process of setting them up." He added that long Covid is something he "understands deeply".

The Minister of Health also faced a flurry of challenging questions from other MPs from all parties in the House of Commons.

Judith Cummins, Labor MP from Bradford South, wanted to know what rate of infection local lockdown restrictions come into effect and at what level they can be relaxed.

Mr. Hancock responded that "specific local circumstances" will determine the length of the lockdown. He argued that it was not possible to set a "specific number" for the point at which restrictions were imposed as it was a judgment of the local authorities.

A spokesman for Public Health England previously told MailOnline that the timing of restrictions is different for each area – and depends on a number of factors including disadvantage, age of the population, population size and infection rate.

Owen Thompson, SNP MP for Midlothian, asked the Health Secretary when the restrictions would be reintroduced in London.

Hancock responded that this is a matter "regularly" discussed between him, the Mayor of London and local officials as they remain vigilant with the transmission of Covid-19 across the country.

Jo Churchill, Conservative MP for Bury St. Edmunds, urged Hancock on whether local bans are in effect – as Manchester and Leicester remain in restrictions months after they were first imposed.

"We saw local actions in some parts of the country that immediately lowered the case rate," he replied. "We need to make sure that we are constantly attentive to the needs that are required to suppress the virus."

The truth about England's second wave of Covid-19: Hospital stays account for 6% of the peaks in the south but 30% in the north, and deaths have flattened out in all countries except the Northwest, Northeast and Midlands

By Sam Blanchard, Senior Health Reporter at MailOnline

The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has decreased in much of England as data suggests the country is panicking from a runaway outbreak in the north.

In London, the Southeast and the Southwest – where roughly half of the country's 55 million residents live – daily admissions appear to be increasing after rising from a summer low in September, in line with cases.

However, approvals in the North West, North East and Yorkshire are still on the rise, where new local bans occur every week and positive tests result in record numbers. But with talk of a second national lockdown growing in winter, the numbers suggest that the south walls are being grouped according to rules they don't need.

In the Midlands and East of England the picture is more complex – in the Midlands hospital stays rose dramatically in September, but there are signs that they have now peaked while admissions in the East still seem to be slowly increasing when also at a significantly lower level than in the northern regions.

Die Zahl der Krankenhausinsassen in den am schlimmsten betroffenen Gebieten hat fast ein Drittel der Zahl erreicht, die sie während des Höhepunkts der Krise im April hatten, während sie im Süden des Landes mit rund sechs Prozent immer noch viel niedriger sind.

Im Nordwesten werden derzeit durchschnittlich 107 Personen täglich mit Coronavirus ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert, im Nordosten 94 pro Tag. Beide Zahlen sind die höchsten seit Mai und zeigen keine Anzeichen einer Verlangsamung. Zum Vergleich lagen die Spitzenwerte für jede Region bei etwa 2.900 bzw. 2.600 pro Tag.

Auf der anderen Seite gibt es in London, wo Beamte Berichten zufolge über härtere Maßnahmen diskutieren, nur 34 Aufnahmen pro Tag – nach durchschnittlich 39 am 25. September und nur 4,5 Prozent des Niveaus, das auf dem Höhepunkt der Krise im April zu verzeichnen war. Und im Südwesten, der während der Pandemie am wenigsten betroffen war, werden täglich nur acht Menschen ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert – sechs Prozent der Höchstzahl.

Das gleiche Bild gilt für die Zahl der Menschen, die an Covid-19 sterben. 171 der 219 Todesfälle in der dritten Septemberwoche (78 Prozent) stammten alle aus den drei am stärksten betroffenen Regionen – dem Nordosten, dem Nordwesten und den Midlands.

Statistiken haben gezeigt, dass Coronavirus-Fälle in den meisten Gebieten, die lokalen Sperrmaßnahmen unterliegen, zuzunehmen scheinen, was Fragen darüber aufwirft, wie gut sie bei der Eindämmung kleinerer Ausbrüche funktionieren.

Aber Professor Neil Ferguson, dessen Arbeit die Regierung dazu veranlasste, im März die erste Sperre in ganz Großbritannien einzuleiten, sagte heute, dass die Situation in Großbritannien "wahrscheinlich schlimmer" wäre, wenn die Beamten nicht den Whack-a-Mole-Ansatz verfolgen würden. Er sagte, es bestehe immer noch das Risiko, dass der NHS überfordert wird, wenn die Fälle nicht gestoppt werden – selbst wenn die Infektionen unter Kontrolle geraten, kann es noch Wochen dauern, bis die Menschen krank genug werden, um eine Krankenhausbehandlung zu benötigen.

Das Gesundheitsministerium kündigte gestern nach einem Wochenende, an dem Public Health England zugab, eine Tabelle durcheinander gebracht zu haben, die bedeutete, dass 16.000 positive Tests letzte Woche nicht gezählt wurden, 12.594 neue Fälle von Covid-19 an.

Beamte haben die Öffentlichkeit gewarnt, dass sich das Coronavirus jetzt in jeder Region Englands schneller verbreitet als im Sommer. Schätzungen zufolge leidet etwa einer von 400 Menschen an der Krankheit und in schwer betroffenen Gebieten auf einen von 200.

Daten von Public Health England zeigen jedoch, dass die Fallrate im Nordwesten und Nordosten etwa achtmal höher ist als im Südwesten, Südosten und Osten Englands.

Die Region mit der höchsten Rate ist der Nordwesten, wo auf 100.000 Menschen 136,1 Fälle kommen, verglichen mit der niedrigsten Rate im Südosten, wo es nur 16,1 Fälle pro 100.000 gibt.

Professor Neil Ferguson, ein Experte des Imperial College London, sagte heute Morgen im BBC Radio 4: „Wir glauben, dass die Infektionen wahrscheinlich zunehmen und sich etwa alle zwei Wochen verdoppeln – in einigen Bereichen schneller, vielleicht alle sieben Tage – und in anderen Bereichen Langsamer.'

Er sagte, Wissenschaftler hätten "immer damit gerechnet", dass die Fälle nach Aufhebung der Sperrung zunehmen würden, und dies sei nun eine Zeit des Versuchs und Irrtums der lokalen Sperrregeln, um zu sehen, wie gut das Virus kontrolliert werden kann, während Schule und Arbeit wieder normal werden.

"Wir haben etwa zehnmal weniger Infektionen als kurz vor der ursprünglichen Sperrung", sagte er, betonte jedoch, dass es von entscheidender Bedeutung ist, neue Infektionen unter Verschluss zu halten.

"Die Sterblichkeitsrate ist wahrscheinlich gesunken (seit dem Frühjahr), wir wissen, wie man Fälle besser behandelt, Krankenhäuser sind weniger gestresst, wir haben neue Medikamente", sagte Professor Ferguson.

„Aber die Aufnahme in Krankenhäuser, Krankenhausbetten, die mit Covid-Patienten besetzt sind, und Todesfälle sind allesamt Verfolgungsfälle. They're at a lower level but they're basically doubling every two weeks and we just cannot have that continue indefinitely.

'The NHS will be overwhelmed again and you can see what's happening in Paris and what's happening in Madrid and measures there. It's being driven by hospitals gradually becoming overwhelmed. Over half of ICU beds (there) are now Covid patients and their death numbers are again creeping up inexorably.'

Department of Health data shows that three quarters of all hospital patients who have Covid-19 (76.8 per cent) are in the North West, North East and Midlands regions. A third are in the North West alone.

Meanwhile, in the East, South East, South West and London – home to at least 30million people – there were just 318 patients with coronavirus yesterday, October 3.

While the rates of people being admitted to hospital are clearing soaring in the northern regions, they appear flat or even declining in other ares.

Every region experienced a surge in the numbers of people getting sent to hospital in September as cases rose in line with loosened lockdown rules, cooler weather and the return of schools and offices after summer holidays.

But in four out of the six regions of the country this increase started to slow down and tail off towards the end of the month while it continued rising in the north.

In the week leading up to October 3, the most recent data, the average daily admissions in the Midlands rose only from 52 to 57 after spiking into the 50s from below 10 a day at the end of August. In the same week, however, admissions in the North West continued surging and went from 79 to 107.

In London and the South East admissions fell from 37 to 34, based on a seven-day average, while they stayed flat in the South West, increasing from seven to eight. They kept spiralling in the North East and Yorkshire from 70 to 94, while also rising in the East of England from 10 to 15, suggesting the situation may be worsening in the East, too.

Comparing the numbers to peak levels from the spring outbreak shows that most of the country is nowhere near those levels.

Closest is the North West, where the number of people in hospital right now is about a third as high as it was on April 13 – 889 compared to 2,890. In the North East the number of patients is at 656 compared to 2,567 on April 9 – 25.5 per cent as high.

In other regions that are nowhere near as badly affected, however, hospital patients are hitting only six per cent of the levels they did at the height of the outbreak.

In London there are just 312 compared to 4,813 on April 8 – six per cent as many – and in the South East just 115 compared to 2,073 on April 7.

Deaths, which are also significantly lower than they were at the peak but are the last figure to rise in an outbreak, also vary dramatically across the country and are only rising in some regions.

Coronavirus fatalities surged in September, rising from 41 in the week ending September 3 to 219 in the week ending September 28.

The latter is the most recent week that NHS data is reliable because it can take weeks for death reports to be filed, meaning the number of victims placed on each day continues to rise for days and weeks after the date passes.

Most of the rise came from hospitals in the North East, North West and the Midlands, the Health Service Journal reported, with all but 48 of the 219 happening in those regions.

NHS trusts in Greater Manchester, Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire and Merseyside accounted for half of all the deaths in that last week of September, according to the specialist news website.

But other regions have not seen a rise in deaths following the warnings of a national resurgence of Covid-19. Just one person died in the South West during that entire week and fatalities remain flat and low in London, the South East, South West and the East.

In a speech in the House of Commons yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged that the northern regions, Scotland and Wales were driving Britain's second wave.

He told MPs: 'Here in the UK the number of hospital admissions is now at the highest it has been since mid-June.

'Last week the ONS (Office for National Statistics) said that while the rate of increase may be falling, the number of cases is still rising. Yesterday (Sunday) there were 12,594 new positive cases.

'The rise is more localised than the first time round, with cases rising particularly sharply in the North East and North West of England, and parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

'Now, more than ever – with winter ahead – we must all remain vigilant and get this virus under control.'

Data for Scotland and Wales show they are proportionately worse affected than much of England, with the number of patients in hospital in Wales at 24 per cent of the levels seen in the peak in April.

Numbers are much smaller in Scotland and Wales, however, and combined they only have 393 patients in hospital – fewer than the Midlands, North East or North West of England. Scotland's hospital admissions are at approximately 12 per cent of peak levels.