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Essex declares major incident over virus cases
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A major incident has been declared in Essex amid fears the number of Covid-19 cases could overwhelm the county's health services.
The Essex Resilience Forum (ERF) said "growing demand" was putting stress on hospitals and social care settings.
On Tuesday Mid and South Essex NHS Trust placed all three of its hospitals on critical alert.
All of Essex is in tier four, and the south of the county has some of the worst-affected districts in England.
Essex Police Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who is co-chair of the ERF, said declaring a major incident allowed it "to seek further support from the government to address the severe pressures which the health system is under".
The forum said the number of patients being treated for Covid in the county had exceeded the levels seen at the peak of the first wave and "these levels are likely to increase further in the coming days".
The ERF - comprised of health services, blue light responders and councils - said issues included "critical care and bed capacity, staff sickness/self-isolation levels and the system's ability to discharge patients quickly into safe environments".
Mr Harrington urged the public to continue only dialling 999 or attending A&E in an emergency.
On Monday, figures showed the number of patients being treated for Covid-19 across hospitals in England was at a record high of 20,426 - beating the previous peak of about 19,000 in April.
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