Dr Jim Gardner, medical director at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and the Clifton Hospital in St Annes, today (20.01.21) shared the news that 169 people within 14 days of a positive test are now in hospital, up from 152 last week and 135 two weeks ago.

Dr. Gardner said in today’s announcement, ‘We have got more Covid-positive patients this week than we had last week. The numbers are steadily rising. Some 130 patients are on general wards at the Vic, 20 are at the Clifton, while 19 are in intensive care beds at the Vic. The intensive care unit has doubled in size and now has 32 beds when they are usually 16.

Seriously ill patients are now being transferred to other hospitals. ‘Those transfers are used in order to make sure we have got capacity at every site across the county. Some seriously ill patients have been moved to hospitals in Preston or Blackburn, and vice versa, while some routine operations have also been axed as medics battle the coronavirus.’

‘We seem to be running at around 20 to 25 deaths per week,” Dr Gardner continued. ‘My condolences go out to all the families involved. I know what a difficult situation this is for everyone because of visiting being restricted. There’s such a long way to go still to get those numbers back down into something that is going to be acceptable to all of us and allow us to come out of lockdown and see a decrease in the number of really poorly patients we are seeing coming into hospital.’

Dr Jim Gardner’s report may be viewed by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/BlackpoolHospitals/videos/405259164097741