are testing positive. and in manchester last night, 17 hospitals put a pause on non—urgent surgery citing the rising impact of covid—19 and staff absence levels of around 15%. those hospitals are under pressure, notjust because of the number of patients coming in with covid, but also because, unfortunately, many of our staff are now isolating because they themselves have covid as well. and it's those two pressures, the patients coming in and the reduction in our staffing, staff being available, that is having the impact at present. although pressure on intensive care might be less severe than in previous waves, the omicron variant is so transmissible, it's seen the numbers with covid in hospital in england alone double in under a fortnight. the prime minister isn't thinking of more restrictions at the moment, but he admits the next few weeks will be hard. there will be a difficult period i for our wonderful nhs for the next few weeks because of omicron.