A mother-of-six who was placed in an induced coma after catching Covid-19 has said listening to anti-vaxxers on social media and refusing to be vaccinated was her ‘biggest regret’.
Emily Burrows, 47, from the Forest of Dean, was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after she tested positive for the virus on July 23 and became critically ill.
Ms Burrows, who has multiple sclerosis, was soon placed on a ventilator after doctors discovered she had extremely low oxygen levels.
She then spent two weeks in an induced coma and is now recovering in hospital.
Ms Burrows admitted she was initially ‘in complete denial’ when she began to notice her symptoms at home but her experience has now changed her outlook on the virus.
Emily Burrows, 47, from the Forest of Dean, was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after she tested positive for Covid on July 23
She had now urged others to get vaccinated in an effort to avoid a similar ordeal to her own, which she described as ‘heartbreaking.’
Ms Burrows, whose husband and eldest son have both received their vaccinations, explained she had not initially not objected to the jab but after reading messages on social media from anti-vaxxers she decided against the vaccine.
She told BBC News: ‘They just go to your head and they play games with you.
‘You don’t know who these people are but because it’s so widespread on there, you end up listening to them.’
Ms Burrows said she began to experience Covid symptoms at home but the illness soon progressed and her son eventually called the ambulance.
While in hospital, Ms Burrows, who at one point became so weak she could not lift her hands, asked staff to give her the vaccine but was told it was too late and she needed to be put on a ventilator immediately.
Now recovering in hospital Ms Burrows said she is now encouraging others to take up the jab when given the opportunity.
Ms Burrows added: ‘I’m not bothered about the anti-vaxxers now. They can say what they like but Covid is real and what I’ve been through is real.’
Ms Burrows, who has multiple sclerosis, spent two weeks in an induced coma and is now recovering in hospital
Ms Burrows was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital with extremely low levels of oxygen
Yesterday, Britain’s daily Covid deaths more than quadrupled in a week, official figures showed.
Health chiefs registered another 209 Covid fatalities on Tuesday, compared to just 50 recorded last Tuesday.
Last week’s number was unusually low and came a day after bank holiday Monday, with death figures typically lower on and around public holidays. For comparison, on the previous two Tuesdays there were 174 and 170 deaths.
Another 37,489 people tested positive for Covid, up 16 per cent in a week. The Department of Health also revealed that 1,000 people were hospitalised with the virus across the UK on September 1.
It marked the second time in a week there were four-figure admissions in a single 24-hour period, after 1,019 people were also hospitalised with the virus on August 25.
The DOH update — which often includes backlogged hospital data due to the way it’s recorded — showed there were a further 988 admissions on September 2 and 905 on September 3, which were both week-on-week rises.
It comes as Downing Street yesterday admitted an October ‘firebreak’ lockdown would only be used as a last resort if the NHS is pushed to the brink in the coming weeks.
Boris Johnson was heavily criticised last autumn for not imposing a firebreaker in October when cases were on the rise.
But his spokesman said that the vaccines had given the UK ‘significant defences’ which the country did not have this time last year.
The PM’s spokesman said: ‘It is not true that the Government is planning a lockdown or firebreak around the October half-term.
‘We have retained contingency plans as part of responsible planning for a range of scenarios, but these kind of measures would only be reintroduced as a last resort to prevent unsustainable pressure on our NHS.’
He added: ‘I think we’ve been clear throughout that we will take action, and indeed we have done when necessary to protect our NHS.
‘But under the previous occasions when that action has been required, we have been without the significant defences that our vaccination programme provides us – we’re now in a much different phase.’
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