Today is the first time that Harrogate District Hospital has gone a full month without reporting a single coronavirus death.
It has been a long road to this point. The hospital reported its first covid-19 death on March 20 and the most recent – the 82nd – on July 19. That patient died four days earlier on July 15.
The district hospital said at the end of July that it had no coronavirus positive patients for the first time since the start of the pandemic. It has not revealed since whether it has taken on any new patients.
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This is the longest time that the hospital has gone without reporting a coronavirus death. The second longest time was for 16 days at the start of July.
Now Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust faces a different challenge. The trust is trying to get as many people as possible to sign up to the local coronavirus vaccine trial.
Despite there being no coronavirus deaths for a month the NHS has extended its contract to keep NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and the Humber as a hospital until March 2021.
That move may not have gone down well with those in the events and hospitality sector locally but the NHS wants to stay prepared in case a second wave hits in winter.
