Mid and South Essex NHS Trust placed its three hospitals on “critical alert on Tuesday.
The Essex Resilience Forum (ERF), which brings together councils, emergency services, the NHS, voluntary organisations and others in times of crisis, said today that the number of Covid-19 hospital patients is higher than at the peak of the first wave in April.
The group warned: “These levels are likely to increase further in the coming days.”
Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington, who is co-chair of the ERF, said that declaring a major incident allowed the forum to “seek further support from the government to address the severe pressures which the health system is under.”