Military staff step in to help strained London hospitals

LONDON (AP) — British troops are deploying to hospitals in London that are struggling to cope with “exceptional” staff shortages amid the surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant. The Ministry of Defense said Friday that it is sending some 40 military medics and 160 general duty staff to plug staffing gaps caused by National Health Service personnel who are either ill or self-isolating amid the spike in coronavirus cases in the capital. The military deployment underscores the impact on Britain’s health service of the pandemic that infected nearly 180,000 people on Thursday alone in the country, forcing many workers to stay home.