Harrogate’s coronavirus testing centre will close at the start of June — as the government prepares to ramp up testing this week.
According to ministers, everyone in England, even those without symptoms, will be able to take a free rapid lateral flow test twice a week from Friday.
Test kits will be available either from various designated sites and pharmacies or through a home ordering service.
If someone returns a positive test, they will then need to take a more accurate PCR test.
Ascent Healthcare on Chain Lane in Knaresborough is the only site currently listed on the NHS England website as a pick-up site for rapid tests in the Harrogate district.
However, Harrogate’s testing site in the car park on Dragon Road, which has the potential to offer the kits and perform PCR tests, will close on June 1.
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The Stray Ferret asked a North Yorkshire coronavirus press briefing today about the closure and plans to find a replacement testing site.
Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, said:
“We have an agreement to keep the site in its current location until June 1. So we are fine to use it in its current form up until that point.
“I guess with the plethora of lateral flow options coming online, including things like the pharmacies, it is likely there will be a lot of other local options.
“It is still fairly early days with the pharmacies so we are kind of waiting to see what the spread is going to be like and whether we will need to encourage more to come in.
“So I think the lateral flow side will be covered by other routes. We are looking across the board at how PCR testing will work from June but there will be other options, including the mobile unit.”
Daily coronavirus statistics
The Harrogate district’s seven-day coronavirus rate remained at 11 infections per 100,000 people today.
The district recorded another six cases, after several days averaging two cases a day.
Harrogate District Hospital, which has six covid patients, has not reported any new coronavirus deaths today.
The last recorded death at the hospital was on March 29.
No coronavirus fines despite huge party on the StrayThe police did not hand out any fines when people partied on the Stray last week, it was revealed today.
The easing of lockdown combined with good weather led to large gatherings.
Despite evidence many people broke social distancing rules, North Yorkshire Police told a press briefing today it did not issue any fines.
Under current rules, people can only gather in groups of six. But this was clearly being flouted on Harrogate’s Stray last week.
Police were seen interacting with people on the Stray but did not disperse the crowds.
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Since March 29, when lockdown restrictions eased, North Yorkshire Police has handed out 11 fines. Ten were for indoor gatherings in Scarborough.
Superintendent Mike Walker, coronavirus response lead at North Yorkshire Police, told today’s press briefing of North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum:
“No fines were handed out but I do have confidence in our officers and PSCOs that if fines were the proportionate response then they would have been issued.
“So outdoor gatherings are governed by the rule of six or two households. These can take place in public spaces or private gardens with social distancing rules in place.
“There are a number of exceptions that we have to take into consideration, including that two households may comfortably exceed six people and that linked households for care and support only count as one household.
“Clearly the continued ‘four Es’ approach is vital to help our officers and PSCOs determine whether there has been a breach in the regulations.
“But my message to the public as the weather gets better as we saw on the Stray that day, people either plan or spontaneously go to public outdoor spaces.
“If you do go to public outdoor spaces you need to make your assessment when you get there as to whether it is safe for you and your family to be there. So that’s the expectation as that is common sense.”
People gathering on the Stray last week.
Police officers engaged with those breaking social distancing rules on the Stray but were unable to disperse the crowds.
Some residents were left with a sense of deja vu, as the heavily littered scene was almost an exact replica of what happened on the Stray on various occasions last summer.
WATCH: NHS takes down Nightingale hospital in HarrogateStaff working on behalf of NHS England have dismantled large parts of the former Nightingale hospital in Harrogate, including the oxygen tanks that have loomed over the town for a year.
Construction workers started the job at 4am today, almost a year to the day since the temporary hospital started to take shape.
The stretch of Ripon Road immediately outside the Royal Hall and Harrogate Convention Centre was closed to traffic while cranes operated.
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We understand the CT scanners will also be removed later today.
The NHS confirmed last month it will dismantle all seven of the Nightingale hospitals across the country.
NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber, which was the Harrogate Nightingale’s full name, which never treated any coronavirus patients.
But it was used to provide CT scans to non-coronavirus patients.
The Harrogate district’s seven-day covid rate is at its lowest since August last year.
Currently, the average stands at 11 per 100,000 people.
It’s the lowest rate since August 30 when it also stood at 11, according to North Yorkshire County Council statistics.
Meanwhile, the North Yorkshire average is 31 and the England rate stands at 38.
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Just three covid cases were reported in the district, according to latest Public Health England figures.
It takes the total number of cases since last March to 7,595.
No further deaths from patients who tested positive for covid have been recorded at Harrogate District Hospital.
The death toll at the hospital since the start of the pandemic stands at 178.
The last recorded death at the district’s hospital was on March 29.
Crane to remove Harrogate Nightingale oxygen tanks tomorrowThe NHS will remove the oxygen tanks from the former Nightingale hospital in Harrogate tomorrow. It will be an historic moment for the town. The tanks have loomed over Harrogate and overshadowed the Royal Hall for a year.
The Nightingale hospital never treated coronavirus patients. Staff did use it to provide CT scans to none coronavirus patients.
The NHS confirmed last month that it will dismantle all seven of the Nightingale hospitals across the country.
A small section of Ripon Road, immediately outside the Royal Hall, will close at 4am to allow for a crane to remove the tanks. It is unclear how long it will take.
Read more:
- Investigation launched into Harrogate Nightingale hospital
- NHS confirms Harrogate Nightingale to close
Meanwhile, local councillors from the West Yorkshire Joint Health Scrutiny Committee are investigating whether lessons could be learned from Harrogate’s Nightingale hospital.
The committee will look into how the hospital would have been staffed and what services would have been affected if it had been needed.
When the oxygen tanks went up last year.
Councillors agreed to start the investigation at the next meeting of the health scrutiny committee on June 22. They will call in NHS officials to give evidence.
The Harrogate Nightingale cost £27 million to set up and served the entire Yorkshire and Humber region,
Harrogate district covid cases stays in single figuresThe Harrogate district has recorded just two coronavirus cases in today’s daily figures, according to Public Health England.
It means that the seven day rate in the district remains low at just 15 per 100,000 compared to the England average of 44 per 100,000.
North Yorkshire as a whole has a slightly lower seven day rate than the rest of the country at 36 per 100,000.
So far 7,590 people have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic in the district.
Harrogate District Hospital has not recorded any further coronavirus deaths today.
The hospital recorded a death for the first time in 13 days on March 30. Currently the hospital’s death toll is at 178.
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Three covid cases reported in Harrogate district
Just three cases of covid have been reported in the Harrogate district, according to the latest figures from Public Health England.
It takes the total number of infections since last March to 7,576.
This is among the lowest daily case numbers reported since September 12, when two were reported.
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- More than half of Harrogate district population receive Covid vaccine
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Meanwhile, the district hospital has gone 12 days without a death from a patient who tested positive for covid.
The last death reported at the hospital was March 16, according to the latest NHS England statistics.
It is the longest period without a coronavirus fatality since the 14 days from December 11 to December 25.
No covid deaths at Harrogate hospital for a weekNo deaths from patients who tested positive for covid have been recorded at Harrogate District Hospital for over a week.
According to NHS England figures, the last death was reported on March 16 – eight days ago.
The death toll at the hospital remains at 177.
Yesterday, health bosses revealed that the number of patients being treated at the hospital had fallen to six.
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It comes as seven more covid cases have been reported in the Harrogate district, according to latest Public Health England data.
It takes the total number of cases since last March to 7,549.
A year of ‘outstanding care’ under immense pressure at Harrogate hospitalToday’s National Day of Reflection marks a year since the start of the first lockdown. Steve Russell, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, writes for the Stray Ferret about how the trust has responded.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of our first national lockdown. This past year has been such a challenge for everyone – not just in the NHS but across our all of our communities. It’s impacted on absolutely everyone in a way that so many of us have never before experienced.
Last week, we also marked the one-year anniversary of our first confirmed inpatient with coronavirus. It’s important we reflect on what our teams have pulled together to deliver since the pandemic began a year ago.
A year on, we have treated just over 800 patients who have suffered with covid. Of those, 600 people have been supported through kind and compassionate care and have been discharged home, but sadly 183 patients lost their lives in the pandemic at our hospitals.
Our community discharge team has supported over 4,500 discharges home during this time, providing the equivalent of 7,000 bed days in patients’ own homes.
Our district nursing services adapted and continued to provide outstanding care to patients in their own homes. They have carried out over 113,000 face-to-face contacts and our specialist care teams have added a further 5,000.
Our 0-19 services (health visiting and school nursing) also had to adapt their ways of working but have continued to support 102,000 children and pregnant mothers during this time. They adjusted the type of support they offer as well as trying to safeguard against increasing levels of risk, which lockdown tragically caused.
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- The Bishop of Ripon writes today about the past year and why she has kept an abiding sense of hope.
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I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of my colleagues across the trust and our partner organisations for their incredible efforts over the past year.
It now feels like an opportunity to look forward. Spring is officially here, the weather is getting warmer, more and more people are having the vaccine and we are easing out of lockdown. We can be really optimistic about getting back to something that more resembles ‘normal’.
That said, we can’t become complacent and we have to bear in mind that covid isn’t just going to disappear.
We will be living in a world where it exists but will be much more manageable. We already know so much more about it than we did at this point last year.
Please, keep following social distancing guidelines, wear a mask, wash your hands. If we’re all still doing this, it’s the quickest route back to doing the lovely things that we really want to do in life.
Harrogate district records 10 further coronavirus casesThe Harrogate district has recorded a further 10 coronavirus cases.
It takes the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 7,507, according to Public Health England statistics.
The district’s seven-day covid rate stands at 44 per 100,000 people. Elsewhere, the North Yorkshire average is 46 and the England rate is 55.
Meanwhile, NHS England figures show a death from a patient who tested positive for covid was reported on March 16 at Harrogate District Hospital.
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It takes the total deaths at the hospital since March last year to 177.
Today, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that more than half of adults across the UK have had a first dose of a covid vaccine.
In the Harrogate district, 70,138 people have been vaccinated according to NHS England figures.