Two hospitals see 60 percent of new covid cases caught on the wards

More than 60% of new covid cases diagnosed at two hospitals in the Midlands in recent days were caught at least two weeks after the patient was admitted — suggesting there may be particular problems with the virus spreading on their wards.

Northamptonshire is also still grappling with larger numbers of covid cases in hospital, in contrast to most of England. Its NHS organisations have said they do not know the cause of its ongoing problems.

But the large share of cases diagnosed among patients who have been in hospital for at least 15 days – classed by NHS England as definitely “healthcare associated” – indicate that problems controlling the spread within the hospitals may be playing a significant part, rather than the outbreaks in the community.

There has been major national concern about in-hospital spread of the virus in recent weeks, with the government introducing new mandatory controls on Friday.

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Source: HSJ, 11 June 2020