Harrogate District Hospital has urged visitors to wear a mask on inpatient wards following rising covid cases.
The district has seen a spike in cases of the virus this past month due to the spread of the more transmissible Omicron variant.
At the end of May, the district’s rate of infection was 55 people per 100,000. It is now 218.
Now, officials at the hospital have urged visitors to inpatient wards to wear a mask when coming to the hospital.
A statement from Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said:
“Due to rising covid-19 rates in the community, please can visitors wear a mask on our inpatient wards to protect our patients and staff, and prevent the spread of the virus.”
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Harrogate hospital is also treating 11 patients who tested positive for covid. However, none of those patients are in hospital primarily for treatment for the virus.
Last week, public health officials in North Yorkshire urged people to take measures to avoid covid after the rate surged.
Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, said:
“Cases of covid are once again rising across the UK, including in North Yorkshire.
“The latest increase is being driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron, which has also caused high rates in other countries across the world.
“There is evidence that BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible than previous variants, and there is limited protection from infection with previous variants against BA.4 and BA.5.”
