Hospitals remain in heat of battle with increase in patients
Hospitals in Shropshire are continuing to see a big increase in patients, despite falling virus infections.
As deaths nationally passed 100,000, new figures reveal that the Midlands is now at the heart of Britain’s coronavirus crisis. Separate data published by statistics agencies places the national death toll at 115,000.
While rates are falling, pressure on intensive care units in the county continues to ramp up.
Nationally, hospital admission rates are down 7.3 per cent in a week to around 27,000.
But at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, admissions for Covid have risen 45 per cent in a week, according to latest Government figures.
They show an average of 23 people being admitted into hospital every day across the county.
Today Dr Arne Rose, the medical director for the two hospitals, warned people not to get complacent as they see stories of falling infection rates.
Telford & Wrekin’s current infection rate per 100,000 of the population is 454.3 and Shropshire’s is 361.5.
Both are down on the week before but represent extremely high levels of infection when compared to previous waves of the pandemic.
Deadly
Speaking in today’s Shropshire Star, Dr Rose said: “Sadly, the number of coronavirus patients we are seeing at our hospitals continues to rise.
“Tragically, so does the number of people dying. For the good news things like vaccination centres bring, we are far from out of the woods just yet.
"Be in no doubt, this disease is deadly and you may even pass it on without knowing.
"We need to do everything we can to stop its spread and to save people’s lives.”
Three of the 10 worst affected areas in England are in the urban West Midlands.
New figures show that, while rates are falling here, they are not falling as quickly as in other regions like the South East.
