January Just days after the World Health Organisation reported that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, which we now know were caused by Covid-19, NHS bosses locally revealed growing pressures on A&E. This came as the NHS experienced its worst waiting times on record. It was revealed that 14,903 people attended Whiston Hospital’s A&E department in December 2019, a 57 per cent rise on the previous year (9,514). Whiston Hospital, which is managed by St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, treated 70.9 per cent of patients who attended in December within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent.