Hospitals’ 259 Covid patients in lead-up to Christmas

THE number of Covid-19 patients at the Derby and Burton hospital trust is continuing to rise in the week leading up to Christmas

A total of 259 people are being treated at the Royal Derby Hospital and Queen’s Hospital in Burton for the virus.

This is a higher number than the peak in the first wave of the pandemic in early April, and is a rise on last week’s figures.

It comes after the Government put large parts of London, South East England and the East of England under harsher restrictions following the discovery of a new strain of the disease. It is reported the new strain is responsible for the huge increase in cases in those regions, which has led to countries across Europe banning air travel to the UK, while France has closed its border to traffic from Britain.

According to University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust, as of yesterday there were 129 patients with the disease at the Royal Derby Hospital, nine of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit.

There are also 130 patients who have tested positive for the disease at Queen’s Hospital, with six of those in the ICU.

This is a slight increase when compared to the previous week, and is higher than the peak during the first wave of the disease.

As of Monday, December 14, there were 127 Covid-19 patients at the Royal Derby Hospital, eight of whom were in intensive care.

At the same time there were 126 Covid-19 patients in Queen’s Hospital in Burton, seven of whom were in intensive care.

However, it is still below the peak of the second wave, which saw 310 patients with Covid-19 across both hospitals on one day.

There have been a further six deaths linked to Covid-19 recorded across Derbyshire in the latest 24-hour period, according to data released by NHS England yesterday.

In the same time period, another 323 cases of coronavirus were reported across Derby and the wider county. In Derby, there has been a rise of 89 cases, bringing the total to 9,220. Elsewhere, there were increases of 47 in South Derbyshire, 27 in North East Derbyshire and 53 in Amber Valley.

The Government said yesterday a further 215 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid19, bringing the UK death toll to 67,616. Here is a breakdown for each local authority area:

■Amber Valley - 4,233 (increase of 53)

■Bolsover - 2,989 (increase of 29)

■Chesterfield - 3,131 (increase of 35)

■Derby - 9,220 (increase of 89)

■Derbyshire Dales - 1,406 (increase of 11)

■ ■Erewash - 3,316 (increase of 20)

■ ■High Peak - 2,662 (increase of 12)

■ ■North East Derbyshire - 3,283 (increase of 27)

■ ■South Derbyshire - 3,665 (increase of 47)

■Locally, the number of Covidrelated deaths since the start of the pandemic is as follows:

■Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust - 896 (up six)

■Chesterfield Royal Hospital - 199 (no change )

■Derbyshire Community Health Services - 25 (no change)

■Derbyshire Healthcare - 2 (no change)