Latest deaths make past seven days deadliest yet for area
NHS CONTINUES TO DEAL WITH EXTREME PRESSURE AND IT COULD GET WORSE
NORTHERN Lincolnshire has experienced the deadliest week of the pandemic yet as the NHS continues to deal with extreme pressure.
A record 28 people lost their lives to coronavirus in local hospitals during the week starting November 23. This surpasses the previous deadliest week for deaths during the first peak in April, when 27 people died in Grimsby and Scunthorpe hospitals.
The latest tragic figures announced on Monday are one death on Saturday, November 28 and five on Sunday, November 29.
The final total for the week may continue to rise due to lags in reporting. A total of 244 patients have lost their lives so far in northern Lincolnshire’s hospitals to date, with 99 of those deaths coming in November alone. Unlike the pandemic first wave when deaths spiked for a single week in April then fell back down, fatalities have remained at a high level for nearly a month during the second wave. The week starting November 2 has 19 recorded patient deaths due to coronavirus, which rose to 26 for both of the following two weeks.
The number of Coivd-19 patients being treated by the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust has also risen over the weekend to 163.
While not an all-time high for the area, it still puts huge pressure on the health service and staff.
As of Monday morning, 71 Covid patients are being treated at Diana, Princess of Wales, with six of them in intensive care.
A further 87 are currently in Scunthorpe General Hospital, where three are in ICU.
Goole hospital is treating five more patients.
A Grimsby nurse described how the hospital had five full wards of Covid patients last week, as well as a highdependency ward of seven beds and the intensive care unit of six beds. This compares to just a single ward during the first wave.
It comes as the coronavirus case numbers for the area have fallen substantially in a sign that the lockdown is reducing transmission.