Covid deaths pass 1,000 mark in Northamptonshire

Covid deaths in Northamptonshire is set to pass another sobering milestone with more than 1,000 recorded in the county.

Sunday's NHS bulletin added three deaths at Kettering General Hospital, two on New Year's Eve and one on January 2.

That took the official toll to 999 recorded deaths at Kettering and at Northampton General Hospital, and also in county care homes since the pandemic began.

Health officials fear spiralling numbers of new positive Covid tests will lead to more hospital admissions and deaths in the coming weeks.

Public Health England have reported more than 450 positives in Northamptonshire every day since December 29 and Saturday's 643 was the biggest daily number so far.

Nearly 3,000 confirmed swabs in the last seven days is nearly three times the equivalent figure from a month ago.

Northamptonshire's two acute hospitals reported being full last week with around 25 per cent of beds occupied by Covid-positive patients, a fraction under the number during the pandemic peak in April.

Speaking on behalf of both hospitals, Deborah Needham, Hospital Chief Executive at NGH, said: “We are experiencing one of our busiest times at the moment, and are seeing an increase in those people needing to come to our A&E departments at both of our hospitals with Covid symptoms.

“We currently have 270 patients across both hospitals with Covid and including our normal non-Covid patients both hospitals are full.

"We expect that as winter progresses and with the new Covid variant these pressures are likely to remain for the next few months.

"Due to this additional pressure and the need for beds to treat those who are seriously unwell, we are having to scale back and postpone some of our non-urgent outpatient and elective activity.

"If a patient’s appointment or operation has to be postponed we will contact them directly."

NHS England publishes a daily list of Covid deaths including those who had a positive test within the previous 28 days or had the virus mentioned on a death certificate.

Analysts allow a four or five-day lag to finalise figures, so deaths occurring in hospitals since Wednesday may not yet be included in the NHS England numbers.

Northamptonshire's care homes have seen 206 deaths according to the Care Quality Commission, but numbers have only been collated to December 24 and are due to be updated by the Office for National Statistics tomorrow.

The location of a further 17 Covid deaths in settings run by Northamptonshire Healthcare Federation Trust have not been confirmed

The Trust operates a number of community healthcare settings in the county and at prisons in Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Lincolnshire.