The number of patients in the Royal Sussex with covid has more than doubled in a week, as cases continue to soar in Brighton and Hove.
Today are now 20 patients in the Brighton hospital with coronavirus – and up to five in its high dependency unit (the actual figure is suppressed below six).
Last Monday, there were six – although there had been eight on a couple of the days in the week before that.
On Saturday, a consultant working in the hospital’s A&E department said on social media that it had expanded its covid capacity, used corridors and held ambulances, and re-instated home monitoring oxygen saturation kits for covid patients.
He also said A&E had been sending vaccinated patients to the intensive care unit – adding that most new cases were in unvaccinated patients, and that those who had been vaccinated didn’t seem to be as unwell as patients had been in January.
In Brighton and Hove, 51.4% of adults had been fully vaccinated as of yesterday, and 72.2% had received a single dose. The UK average is 68.5% having both jabs and 87.9% having one.
This is up from 45.1% with both jabs and 68.6% with just one as of 29 June. On that day, the UK average was 62.4% having two jabs and 84.9% having both.
Meanwhile, after a brief plateau, the number of cases in the city is now on the rise again, with the rate for the seven days to July 16 rising to 537.1 per 100,000, up 21.7% from the previous seven day period.
The figures for the week to July 16 could rise still further as more test results come in.
Cases are highest in teenagers and young adults, with one in every hundred child aged 15 to 19 testing positive in the week ending 14 July.
However, so far this month just one person has died within 28 days of a covid test, on July 10.
Earlier today, the public health directors for East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove issued a statement urging people to keep wearing masks and socially distancing.
