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Where is Professor Chris Whitty? England’s CMO back working on Covid wards

In the absence of daily media briefings, England’s Chief Medical Officer has headed back to the Covid wards to get a better idea of the current situation.

Professor Chris Whitty, who was spotted working on the wards during Christmas weekend as cases and deaths spiked, has warned that young unvaccinated adults are “very sick” and urged people not to delay getting their Covid vaccine.

He branded it “stark” that the majority of Covid patients have not had a jab. He said he had spent four weeks working on a Covid ward and told how many “regret delaying” their vaccination.

“The great majority of adults have been vaccinated,” he tweeted.“Four weeks working on a Covid ward makes stark the reality that the majority of our hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated and regret delaying.

“Some are very sick including young adults. Please don’t delay your vaccine”.

It follows the release of the latest data from Public Health England (PHE), which showed that 55 per cent of people in hospitals who had tested positive had not been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 74 per cent of people under 50 in hospital with the variant had not been vaccinated.

The latest official data shows that England’s coronavirus R value – or reproduction number – has risen to between 0.9 and 1.2.

It was revealed today that almost 5,000 coronavirus cases have emerged that are suspected to be linked to a music festival in Cornwall.

The cases are spread across the country but around 800 are living in Cornwall, a council official confirmed.

Related: The Hartlepool Globetrotter: PM’s trip on ‘Sleazyjet’ makes the rounds on social media

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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