Craigavon Hospital: More than 100 staff across Southern Trust unable to work

More than 100 members of staff across the Southern Health Trust are unable to work after either testing positive for coronavirus or having to self-isolate due to being in contact with it.

The Trust confirmed the news in a statement to BBC News NI.

Three clusters of cases have been identified in the hospital and several wards are closed.

On Thursday, the Department of Health estimated NI's coronavirus 'R' number to be between 1.1 and 1.6.

One new coronavirus-related death was recorded by the department on Thursday.

It also confirmed 77 more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 7,442.

The department said about 10% of cases are in the over 60s age group, whereas at the peak of the epidemic 40 - 50% of identified cases were in this age group.

"As a result, hospital admissions are increasing very slowly but are still at a low level in comparison to the first wave when there was a comparable number of cases," continued the statement.

Eighteen people are in hospital with Covid-19, with three patients in intensive care.

There have also been 21 outbreaks at care homes, an increase of three from Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Shane Devlin who leads the Southern Trust said 40 haematology staff and 11 staff members from the general medical ward of Craigavon Area Hospital were in quarantine.

"Clearly they are not all Covid-positive, but what we must really appreciate is, given it is a highly contagious virus, we must make sure that anyone who potentially has been in contact with infected cases, or anyone who is positive, that we quarantine them," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Mr Devlin said the trust would be looking to agency staff to help alleviate pressures in the hospital.

"There may be services we would have to stop delivering to allow staff to carry on caring for patients that we can't stop delivering to," he added.

During his briefing at Stormont on Wednesday Health Minister Robin Swann said the situation at Craigavon Area Hospital showed "how fragile" the health care system is.

"What we're seeing now is a direct impact on those services that we were slowly ramping up in Craigavon," said Mr Swann.

"What we don't want to do is actually go back to the position where we have to stop services the way we did in the first wave."

All visiting across the County Armagh hospital was suspended on Wednesday, with a review to take place next week. Visits may still take place in end-of-life circumstances.