Sheffield hospitals now have more coronavirus patients than at any other stage of pandemic

As of today (Monday, January 11), Northern General Hospital and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital are now looking after 340 people with Covid-19 as well as 25 seriously ill patients on their intensive care wards.

Dr Jennifer Hill, medical director for operations at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said the latest ‘worrying’ milestone was yet another indication that the city had ‘not yet seen the worst’ of this ‘awful virus’.

She said: “We are now seeing a steady increase each day in the number of patients being admitted with COVID-19 and today we have exceeded the number of patients we cared for in the first or second wave. We currently have 340 patients in our hospitals with COVID-19 and 25 patients in our intensive care wards.

"We are monitoring the situation carefully and have additional capacity in our plans should we continue to see an increase in COVID-19 cases but this is clearly a worrying indicator that we have not yet seen the worst of this virus. It has never been more important for everyone to really stick to the new lockdown rules and in particular only to come into contact with people outside their household if absolutely essential.

"By not mixing with each other we can avoid transmitting this awful virus. We are continuing to balance the need to care for COVID patients whilst still providing other care where we have capacity and it is safe to do so, and so we would ask patients to attend as planned for appointments or procedures unless we contact them direct to say not to come.

"Our teams have been working tirelessly now for almost a year to ensure that we can continue to respond to this unprecedented challenge and whilst we are doing everything we can to support them, the best way to thank them and ensure they are here when you need them is to do all you can to limit the transmission of this now even more virulent virus.”

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