Manchester's Nightingale Hospital to reopen by the end of next week

Manchester's Nightingale Hospital is expected to have reopened by the end of next week, medical bosses have said.

At a media briefing on Thursday, medical director of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Professor Jane Eddleston confirmed the facility at the Manchester Central conference centre would be opening again.

She said: "We will be opening the Nightingale, we expect that to be towards the end of next week.

"The Nightingale will not be used as a critical care facility and neither was it in the first phase, it will be used as a facility for patients to have additional rehabilitation.''

She said it would be available for use by patients from around the North West.

Prof Eddleston said the latest figures for the city showed there were 95 patients in critical care with Covid-19, compared to 260 at the peak of the pandemic.

She said in Greater Manchester there had been an ongoing transmission and a need for hospital beds for coronavirus throughout the summer.

Covid-secure hospital sites around the region had been identified to allow elective procedures to continue, she said.

Greater Manchester is going to go into Tier 3 restrictions on Friday following a rise in infections.

Household transmission 'main driver'

Director of public health for Manchester David Regan said work had been done with universities in the city to manage outbreaks in student accommodation and there had been a fall in the rate of the virus in people aged between 17 and 21.

But he said there was a concern about the rising number of cases among the over-50s and over-60s.

He said: "Unfortunately our older population are more at risk of developing complications from Covid which may result in hospital admissions.

"That's where our focus is now and what we need to do is really reinforce those core public health messages, particularly as we move into Tier 3.''

He said transmission within households was still the "main driver'' of a rise in infections.

He added: We know what we do now will reduce the pressure on our hospitals, on our social care facilities, on our care homes in the next few challenging months.''