MORE patients have died at Herefordshire's hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, the latest NHS figures show.

NHS data showed nine people died in March at the Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, after testing positive for Covid-19.

That was down from 11 in February and 11 in December, and the same as January.

As of 4pm on Monday (April 4), a total of 296 patients had died at Wye Valley NHS Trust hospitals after testing positive for Covid-19.

But the toll has not been rising as sharply as it did last winter.

In December 2020, 28 deaths were reported, followed by 82 in January, 34 in February and five in March.

But over recent months, the trust has been dealing with a rise in coronavirus cases on its wards and in the community and visiting was, for a time, suspended in most, but not all, circumstances.

 

At a Wye Valley NHS Trust board meeting in February, chief executive Glen Burley said Covid was, at the time, an improving picture.

While the trust was treating 23 patients with Covid at the time, he said a "large proportion" were found to have Covid on admission for other reasons rather than being admitted due to the virus.

Fewer patients were on oxygen and in critical care than last year, he said.

 

The latest figures from the Government showed the trust was caring for 31 patients with Covid at 8am on March 29 – one fewer than the week before.

Daily death counts are revised each day, with each case backdated to the actual date of death.

This means some of the deaths that were first recorded in the latest period may actually have taken place days earlier.

In the seven days to March 31, the final day of free testing in England, 1,709 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Herefordshire. That was 355 fewer than the week before.