Thousands more coronavirus patients in hospital over weekend as NHS boss ramps up Covid-19 testing for staff

Thousands more coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals in England over the weekend as NHS boss Sir Simon Stevens warned: “That number is only going to increase.”

The number of patients being treated for coronavirus in hospital soared from 6,200 on Friday to more than 9,000 on Monday. 

During the Government’s daily press briefing on Friday, Sir Simon said 6,200 coronavirus patients were in hospital, meaning almost 3,000 new patients were admitted over the weekend.

It comes as 1,408 people are now confirmed to have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for Covid-19, as of 5pm on Sunday. This is up 180 from the 1,228 the day before.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Simon said that the number of patients will increase, but explained that services set up to handle additional capacity will be available later this week.

He said: “Today there are over 9,000 positive coronavirus patients in hospitals across England and we know that number is only going to increase.

“That’s why what you see here is a mass mobilisation, taking place right across the country, but also at these new Nightingale hospitals.

“This has been an extraordinary team effort on the part of nurses and doctors and therapists and pharmacists across London, but also volunteers and paramedics and people returning to help.

“And when these services are needed, they will be available beginning later this week, and because this is a global health emergency we’re actually seeing similar types of hospitals being established in Berlin and Madrid and New York.”

Sir Simon also said that NHS England will be able to double the number of coronavirus tests it has available for staff by the end of this week.

It was announced last week that around 800 samples would be processed over the weekend at the first of three new hub laboratories set up by the Government for the duration of the crisis.

It comes as theme park Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey had six lanes set up in its car park for doctors and nurses to get tested in a drive-thru facility.

The site is understood to be one of several sites across the UK rolling out tests for NHS workers. 

Sir Simon added: “NHS staff are affected just like people across the country as a whole and so we are seeing staff who are doing the right thing and having to self-isolate at home.

“That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important that we are ramping up staff testing, but it’s also why it’s so vital that all of us take the medical advice and stay at home.

“That will reduce the infections and reduce the need for services such as this new Nightingale hospital.”

Sir Simon continued: “By the end of this week, we will be able to do double the number of tests that were available last week and we want to start with critical care nurses, with A&E staff, with ambulance personnel, and then expand that to a much wider group of NHS staff over the coming days and weeks.”

Sir Simon also said that intensive care beds are available for those that need them and said that the Government is “pulling out all the stops” to procure personal protective equipment for NHS staff.

He said: “We have got available intensive care and available hospital beds but we are also bringing online additional capacity such as these Nightingale hospitals as we need them.”

Sir Simon added: “It is vital that frontline NHS staff get the protective equipment they need. 170 million items of that protective equipment have been shipped, it’s a huge logistics exercise.

“The army have been brilliant in helping but we know we’re going to need more and the Government are pulling out all the stops to procure for us that personal protective equipment that we will want over the coming days and weeks.”