An outbreak of coronavirus cases at a West Country hospital has been “nipped in the bud”, according to a local MP.
John Penrose, who is the Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare, said the decision to close the town’s hospital on 25 May had resolved the issue.
Posting on Twitter, the MP said the “source of infection” came from the hospital and “not anywhere else”.
Just off the phone with local health chiefs. They’ve done their tests, and say the source of infection was only the hospital, not anywhere else. So the hospital lockdown should have nipped the problem in the bud & no need for wider shutdowns. A huge relief!
– JOHN PENROSE MP
Weston General Hospital stopped accepting new patients in May due to a high number of Covid-19 cases.
Patients on a non-Covid ward were among those infected, as well as more than 100 members of staff.
In a statement the hospital said work to ensure it could accept new patients and reopen the the A&E department was “on going”.
It also said no new cases of Covid-19 had been detected on the non-Covid wards since the hospital closed.
But, it added, following initial testing around 6% of the staff group at the hospital were asymptomatic and infected.
This would indicate no in-hospital transmission of the infection and continues to demonstrate that the actions being taken at the hospital are working and ensuring patients and staff remain as safe as possible.
– UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS BRISTOL AND WESTON
Robert Woolley, chief executive at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It’s encouraging that we continue to see no evidence of in-hospital transmission. This is a reflection of the hard work and commitment of our staff to tackle this situation and keep our patients and each other safe.
“We will continue to test patients and staff regularly, as part of the careful planning to ensure we can re-open services as soon as possible. This includes deep cleaning the hospital, and carefully working through how we open our doors to new patients whilst maintaining the safety of our patients and staff.”
Full article available here: https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2020-06-04/weston-mp-says-hospitals-coronavirus-outbreak-nipped-in-the-bud/