Virus admissions highest since May

HOSPITAL admissions for coronavirus have soared, reaching their highest level since May.

Some 680 people were admitted to hospital with Covid across the UK on Saturday, according to figures published last night – more than twice the 335 admitted a fortnight earlier.

It is the highest number of daily admissions since May 28, when 702 people were admitted. Last night’s figures also reveal an additional 137 Covid deaths – slightly down on the day before – and 19,724 new cases. NHS bosses have warned disruption to key services is inevitable as cases rise, with those in virus hotspots warning of the ‘dire situation’ faced by hospitals.

Critical care capacity reached 90 per cent at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with 55 out of 60 beds at the hospital in use.

Simon Weldon, chief executive of the Northampton and Kettering group of hospitals, warned that the second wave will be ten times harder for the NHS.

‘Wave one was the easy part of the job,’ he told the Health Service Journal’s Digital Strategy Summit.

Mr Weldon added: ‘ Wave two is ten times harder because you’ve got staff exhaustion, you’ve got elective recovery, you’ve got winter, and you’ve got Covid all happening at the same time.’

An 89-year-old Dutch woman is thought to be the first person in the world to have died after being infected with coronavirus for the second time.

The victim was suffering from Waldenstrom, a rare form of bone marrow cancer, and her immune system was compromised, Dutch experts said in an academic paper published by Oxford University Press.

The woman, who has not been named, died after three weeks, the report said.