A community in Teesside has been reminded about the impact of good hand hygiene, as cases of Covid-19 have continued to surge over the last month.

Deepak Dwarakanath, medical director of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, has provided an update and reminded people about the importance of hand hygiene.

The Trust now has more than 60 patients in its care with the virus, a six-fold increase over the last month.

He said: “We are seeing a big upsurge in the number of patients who are coming in with Covid or have it found when we screen them, this is the adding to the pressure we are already seeing during this extremely busy summer.”

Read more: RNLI's anger after they are called out to search operation - and it turns out to be a prank

“The patients coming into hospital are nowhere near as sick as they were during wave two, this Omicron variant is a much milder disease, though it still makes people ill.

“One of the extra pressures we are seeing is lots of staff being off work sick with the virus.

“If the modelling shows it would have an impact in reducing the number of cases, the return of masks in our hospitals is something that may need to be considered.

“If people have symptoms, a temperature, cough, breathlessness, cold-like symptoms, take a test, if you are in areas crowded try to keep in well ventilated areas and minimise exposure.

“Hand-washing is having a major impact in the control of this virus and lots of other bugs, we have seen the incidence of all bugs has dramatically dropped over the last two years with the practice of good hand hygiene.”

--

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated Teesside Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054