Hospitals in the Bristol region are coming under increasing pressure as the city becomes the first in the country to enter a unique coronavirus alert level called “Tier one plus”.
City leaders announced the new locally developed Tier 1+ today (October 28), describing it as an approach to encourage people to “get back to basics” to slow the spread of the virus.
The rule of six and the 10pm curfew for hospitality venues must still be followed as the fundamentals of the Tier 1 restrictions still apply.
But Covid marshals, enhanced contact tracing, and “targeted actions” will be introduced as additional measures to remind individuals, families and organisations of the need to follow the rules and be scrupulous about social distancing, handwashing and mask-wearing.
The announcement came amid rapidly rising Covid-19 numbers in Bristol, which reached 344 per 100,000 people last week, far exceeding the average for England.
Bristol City Council’s director of public health Christina Gray, who announced the new alert level jointly with Bristol mayor Marvin Rees at a press briefing, said the three big hospitals in the Bristol area were seeing a rise in the number of patients being admitted for coronavirus but the numbers were still “relatively low”.
But the infection control requirements of the pandemic and the added burden of winter illnesses were putting Southmead Hospital, the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Weston General Hospital under pressure, she said.
“Up until the end of last week we were seeing a very slow incremental increase in hospital admissions...across Weston hospital and the two Bristol hospitals,” she said.
“This week we’re seeing the hospitals are under pressure.
“The hospitals are under pressure because they’ve got reduced capacity because they have to manage those Covid-secure spaces and they have to have enhanced infection control and they’re beginning to see winter pressures anyway.
“We’re seeing exactly what we would expect.”
Ms Gray and Mr Rees said if the new Tier 1+ approach fails to slow the spread of Covid-19, the city will inevitably find itself under Tier 2 restrictions.
Tier 2 would mean no household mixing indoors and obeying the rule of six outdoors.
