Military personnel are now helping in South West hospitals, as coronavirus admissions hit record highs
From today, armed forces have been supporting Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), Weston General Hospital and other acute trusts across the region.
Bristol City Council reported this week that admissions at both of the city's hospitals peaked at 404 - the highest since the pandemic hit.
And the latest data - published on January 12 - by Public Health England's shows 21 patients were being cared for on ventilators at North Bristol Trust and 21 at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust said: “The military are supporting the NHS response to the second wave of the pandemic.
"Many Trusts around the country, including the wider south west, are welcoming military staff from today to provide support where it would be of most benefit, and this includes our Weston and Bristol sites.”
A spokesperson for NHS England said the authority was 'grateful to the many military personnel working in hospitals in the South West, alongside the tens of thousands of St John volunteers based across the country.
They said: "The NHS has 50,000 more staff now working in the health service than a year ago all working round the clock to respond to unprecedented pressure on the NHS.”
The news comes on the same day that it's been confirmed the UK suffered its biggest single-day jump in cases of the pandemic so far. A further 1,610 people died across our nation after contracting the virus.
In Bristol and its neighbouring areas, six more people have died.
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Three fatalities were in our city, where a further 262 people tested positive for the virus.
Two more people died in South Gloucestershire, where 141 positive lab tests were returned.
And one death was in Bath and North East Somerset. This district confirmed 82 new infections.
