VISITING has been cancelled and new admissions stopped after a Covid outbreak at a hospital in Herefordshire.

Wye Valley NHS Trust, the group behind Herefordshire's hospitals, said Leominster Community Hospital had suffered an outbreak of Covid.

At Thursday's trust board meeting, bosses said there had been three different outbreaks across its hospitals since August.

Since the last meeting, it was said the trust adopted national Covid guidance and stepped down routine screening and mask wearing, also relaxing visiting restrictions.

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But it had experienced three outbreaks; one on Frome at Hereford County Hospital at the end of August and then two further outbreaks on the hospital's Lugg ward and at Leominster's hospital in South Street.

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While it was not possible to identify the first case for Frome ward, the first cases at Leominster and Lugg were linked to visitors.

Meeting documents said Leominster hospital has been closed to admissions, but Lugg and Frome wards were kept open during their outbreaks by using it for Covid positive patients.

Wye Valley NHS Trust said: "Leominster Community Hospital wards are currently closed to visitors due to cases of Covid-19, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Please speak to the nurse in charge."

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The trust was caring for 32 coronavirus patients in hospital last Tuesday (September 27), figures show.

NHS England data shows the number of people being treated in hospital for Covid-19 by 8am on September 27 was up from 19 on the same day the previous week.

There were nine beds occupied by Covid-19 patients four weeks ago in Wye Valley NHS Trust.

Across England there were 7,024 people in hospital with Covid as of September 28, with 160 of them in mechanical ventilation beds.

The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised nationally has increased by 24% in the last four weeks, while the number on mechanical ventilators has increased by 11%.

The figures also show that 25 new Covid patients were admitted to hospital in Wye Valley NHS Trust in the week to September 26. This was up from 18 in the previous seven days.