Coronavirus infection rates may be starting to plateau in Dorset
Dorset County Hospital say the number of patients being admitted has levelled off
Dorset County Hospital bosses say they’ve seen a drop in the number of people being hospitalised with the Covid-19.
Yesterday there were 88 COVID patients in hospital beds there, compared with roughly the same amount the week before.
Alastair Hutchison is the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer.
He said:
“Things have stabilised. Whereas a week ago I was concerned that we might end up being overrun, in fact the numbers of cases has levelled off.
He says there’s always a lag between what’s happening in the community and the situation in the hospital.
“The good news is, in the community, it’s clear that the lockdown is working and that case numbers are beginning to go down.
“We definitely seem to have reached the peak, it looks like there’s a definite trend to a decrease in the number of cases.
“We can expect to see the number of cases in the hospital start to decline, but that probably won’t really happen for another week at least.”
While cases may be levelling off, there are still vastly more people in hospital than lthere were during the first peak last year.
Yesterday there were 500 patients in hospitals across Dorset, compared with just 130 during the first wave.
Alastair said we still need to take great care to follow the restrictions.
“So although the number of cases looks like it’s on a plateau, overall the numbers are much higher than they have been for many, many months.
“There is still a significant risk to individuals, and with the vaccination campaign going really well, every serious illness or death that we experience now is a real tragedy because it’s unnecessary in the sense that the vaccination is being rolled out.
“Within three months time I think we will be in a very much better place than we are now, but in the meantime it really does need people to keep following the lockdown rules.”