The number of covid patients in North Yorkshire’s hospitals has almost doubled in the last week.
Senior health officials are urging people to continue to get the vaccine as cases in the county continue to surge.
Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for NHS North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group told a meeting of North Yorkshire’s Local Resilience Forum today that there had been a jump in the number of patients in the last seven days.
She said:
“We have seen that the number of patients who have covid in our hospitals has risen over the last week.
“As of yesterday there were 23 patients in our hospitals and that figure is up from 12 this time last week so we have seen an increase of 11 patients.”
The numbers include six patients in York Hospital and three in Harrogate. There are currently no covid patients at Scarborough Hospital.
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The rise in patients comes as the Delta variant of covid continues to spread throughout North Yorkshire, particularly in those under 30, with the number of cases having tripled in a fortnight.
The current infection rates per 100,000 in the county are 139 in Selby, 124 in Craven, 108 in Richmondshire, 91 in Harrogate, 51 in Ryedale, 44 in Hambleton and 28 in Scarborough.
The overall rate for North Yorkshire is now 81. At the start of June, the county’s rate per 100,000 people was just 18.
Mrs Bloor said everyone who was eligible for a vaccine, which is now all over 18s, should come forward to get the jab.
She said:
“We all know how important vaccination is.
“Anything that all of us can do to encourage any of our friends, colleagues, families and people in our communities who have not felt able to come forward yet and take their vaccine [will help].
“We can see from the numbers in our communities and from the numbers of patients in hospitals that the most effective weapon against covid is to have a vaccine and have two doses.
“It may not prevent you from getting the disease itself but it will prevent you from becoming seriously unwell and potentially requiring hospital treatment and stay in hospital.”
Mrs Bloor added that “there was still a link” between the rise in infections and hospitalisations and it had not yet been broken.
So far, 355,012 people have had two doses of a covid vaccine in North Yorkshire according to Public Health England figures.
