Chesterfield Royal Hospital comments amid growing concerns about second coronavirus wave nationally

On Monday, the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance warned there could be 50,000 new Covid-19 cases a day by mid-October without further action – which, he said, could lead to more than 200 deaths per day by mid-November.

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The UK’s coronavirus alert level was subsequently increased to four, meaning transmission is ‘high or rising exponentially’.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to address the nation in a broadcast at 8pm on Tuesday.

At Chesterfield Royal Hospital, staff were caring for four patients with Covid-19 at 9am on Monday. That figure was two last week and zero the week before.

In total, 139 patients have died at the Royal after testing positive for coronavirus. A Covid-19 death has not been recorded by the hospital since July 31.

Since the end of March, 580 coronavirus patients have been discharged from the Royal

A Chesterfield Royal Hospital spokesperson said: “With daily case numbers of Covid-19 doubling each week right now, we all have a responsibility to protect each other and protect the NHS.

“The autumn and winter months provide the right conditions for respiratory illness, including Covid-19, and we traditionally see a rise in these types of illness.

“This year we are trying to manage a ‘normal’ winter caseload, with a potential rise in Covid-19 – and restore our other services including routine planned operations.

“We are still running an incident control centre as we have throughout the pandemic and we are already using services flexibly to provide patients with the right care in the right place at the right time.

“We have one Covid-19 ward at present – but if we needed to increase this we’d work through the same plan we did at the height of the pandemic.

“We are well prepared as a trust, thanks to incredible work by our 4,200 staff.

“We need the public to help us as well, though, to reduce the risk of spread – wearing a face covering or face mask in public areas, washing hands frequently, following the Rule of Six when meeting people and maintaining social distancing.

“If we all stick to the Government’s measures, it will hopefully enable the hospital to cope with demand.”

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