70 per cent spike in Covid infections in Rotherham

COVID inpatient numbers at Rotherham Hospital stayed low this week — but the number of infections spiked by 70 per cent.

A spokesperson from The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said they had no patients in need of critical care yesterday and were treating just two Covid positive patients overall.

However, the seven-day infection rates in the borough shot up more than two-thirds.

In the week to last Sunday, the rate was 61.8 per 100,000 people — up from 34.7 the week before.

The Covid variant VUI-21May-01 (previously known as the Yorkshire variant) had also shown an increase in cases, government figures revealed.

Up until June 16 the number of cases of this variant under investigation had gone up to 169 positive cases — an increase of 13 from the previous week.