Concerns flagged as Covid cases on the rise
RISING Covid-19 cases are taking their toll on staffing at a hospital trust, a meeting has heard.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show infections are rising again across the
UK – up 32% on the previous week with one in 30 people estimated to have the virus.
Two new sub-variants of Omicron have been blamed.
Stockton’s latest health and wellbeing board heard cases were on the increase again.
Public health chief Sarah Bowman-Abouna said people could become reinfected even if they already had it.
She added vaccines had been very good at protecting against serious illness and death, but didn’t always protect against infections.
Ms Bowman-Abouna added: “Hospital admissions have been increasing but not to the extent they were earlier in the pandemic, despite the levels of infection.
“That’s reflected in intensive care units as well. But that doesn’t mean hospitals are not under pressure – they certainly are. Particularly in the health and care sector, business continuity is an issue.
“Staff absences, in particular, are of concern and I know our partners are watching that very carefully.”
Hilton Heslop, from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS trust, confirmed covid was having an impact issue on staffing. “We’re finding lots of people are unaware they’ve got covid because people are starting to live with it now,” he said.
“They are realising later on they had covid and by that point they’ve passed it on so it’s impacting on our staff, which is a big concern for our elective programme but also planning right through the vaccine programme.
“It’s a big concern – we’ll be keeping a very close eye on it and it will be part of our winter planning.”
It’s understood the infection’s rise is being driven by two new fastspreading sub-variants of Omicron called BA.4 and BA.5.
More than 39 million booster doses have been administered across the UK so far.
An extra booster jab rollout is also under way for those aged 75 and over as well as for care home residents and those with weakened immune systems.
Staff absences, in particular, are of concern and I know our partners are watching that very
carefully.
Sarah BowmanAbouna, right