The UK vaccination programme has shattered the link between coronavirus cases, hospital admissions and deaths, according to a senior NHS boss.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, declared the link officially “broken” adding that hospitals were reporting less sick, younger patients than before.
The success of the vaccine rollout continues this week, with people aged 25 to 29 being offered their first jab from Tuesday.
“What chief executives are consistently telling us is that it is a much younger population that is coming in,” he told Times Radio.
“They are less clinically vulnerable, they are less in need of critical care and therefore they’re seeing what they believe is significantly lower mortality rate which is borne out by the figures.
“So it’s not just the numbers of people who are coming in, it’s actually the level of harm and clinical risk.”
Mr Hopson referred to Bolton which is battling its way out of a surge in cases of the Indian Covid variant.
On the basis that Bolton had “gone through its complete cycle” he said the view from the hospital there was that staff were able to cope with the level of infection.
“It’s important not to just focus on the raw numbers here,” he added.
“You also do need to look at who’s being admitted into hospital and how clinically vulnerable and what level of acuity they’ve got.”
However, he said those people who are admitted to hospital and survive may still end up with long Covid.
Ministers are currently deciding whether to delay the final lifting of lockdown on June 21.
