LONDON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Doctors and nurses in northern England, one of areas hit hardest by coronavirus, have described themselves as being physically and emotionally "exhausted" in the fight against the pandemic, local media reported Thursday.

Most of the areas in northern England are currently under Tier Two "high" level of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's three-level COVID-19 alert system while the Liverpool City Region, also in northern England, is placed in Tier Three, the "very high" level.

"The nurses across my branch are frightened and exhausted, physically and emotionally," Carmel O'Boyle, a nurse in Liverpool, told The Guardian.

"They've been dealing with this for months and now there are more people in hospitals than there were in March. Although we know a little bit more about how to treat people and the kind of path of the disease process, it's still frightening," said O'Boyle, who is also chair of the Royal College of Nursing's Greater Liverpool and Knowsley branch.

The concerns from the medical staff are rising amid a sharp rise in coronavirus cases across Britain.

Another 18,980 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, and 138 coronavirus-related deaths were recorded, according to official figures released Wednesday.

Meanwhile, millions of Londoners will face tougher restrictions from Saturday as the British capital will be placed in Tier Two of the government's alert system, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Thursday.

Under the tier-two of the COVID-19 alert system, different households in London are banned from meeting in indoors, including in pubs and restaurants.

Along with London, other areas, including Essex, Elmbridge, Barrow-in-Furness, York, North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield and Erewash, will also go into "High" alert restrictions this weekend.

To bring life back to normal, countries, such as Britain, China, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.