NHS chief goes back to where it all began

MORE than 320,000 coronavirus patients have been cared for in hospitals since the first victims received treatment a year ago.

At least 26,000 have been admitted to intensive care – around one every 30 minutes, NHS England said.

Chief executive Sir Simon Stevens paid tribute to staff for their extraordinary work “in a year like no other” as he marked the anniversary by visiting the hospital that received the first patients.

Achieved

He said the NHS had achieved things many would have thought impossible, including opening quarantine centres, Nightingale hospitals and thousands of extra intensive care beds.

He added: “Our brilliant NHS staff are part of this country’s greatest peacetime mobilisation.”

The first coronavirus patients – a university student and his mother – were taken ill in York on January 29 last year.

Sir Simon met with staff at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary yesterday, where the pair were taken two days later.

Meanwhile, the latest Office for National Statistics infection survey found one in 55 people had the virus in the week to January 23.The figure was broadly unchanged from the previous week.