UK nurses ask for masks and respirators as Covid cases rise

London: UK nurses want to bring back masks in all healthcare settings as cases of a new Covid-19 variant increase.

This week, the World Health Organisation advised health facilities to introduce universal mask-wearing and give respirators and other appropriate personal protective equipment to staff treating Covid-19 patients.

Leaders from industry body the Royal College of Nursing wrote to chief nurses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland this week to ask them to bring the U.K.’s advice in line with that of the WHO.

The country does not currently mandate the use of masks by hospital staff. But cases of Covid-19 are rising in the country, in part driven by new omicron-linked variant JN.1.

Around 7% of positive Covid-19 tests in the U.K. are JN.1, the U.K.’s Health Security Agency says.

An omicron descendent, it’s also the fast-growing variant in the U.S., where it was first detected in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although it is spreading fast, the WHO says JN.1 represents a low risk to the public. So far, it has not been seen to make people sicker than other variants.

The disease is currently putting fewer people in U.K. hospitals than this time last year, despite its prevalence being higher. But it’s too soon to say exactly how much it will impact health services.

“The uncertainty is how high infections will go and when they will peak,” University of East Anglia Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter told the Science Media Centre in response to the country’s latest official data.

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“Although a covid infection is much less likely to put you in hospital than a year ago, if infection rates go very high then this will put pressure on [the healthcare system].

“Unfortunately it is too early to know this,” he said.

Nonetheless, northern hemisphere countries like the U.K. are already battling growing cases of winter illnesses like flu. There is a concern that rising Covid-19 cases will put added strain on healthcare systems.

Measures like wearing masks or respirators and ensuring good ventilation, can help limit the spread of illnesses like Covid-19 in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The U.K.’s public health system is already seeing the impact of winter on its emergency care services, which have been under serious pressure for the last two years.

The time it takes to handover patients from ambulances to emergency departments, for example, increased sharply this month.

Royal College of Nursing director for England, Patricia Marquis, says she was “mindful of the current unsustainable pressures on the health service,” in the letter seen by The Guardian.

“I am concerned that without proper protections ill-health and sickness will continue to rise in nursing staff and impact on their ability to deliver safe and effective patient care,” she said, adding that the RCN was also concerned “about the increased risks to patients from hospital-acquired respiratory infections.”

The organisation warned in a statement that without adequate protections, nursing staff could fall ill, preventing them from delivering “safe and effective care.”