Coronavirus latest: 'Clear signs of a second wave in Luton' say health officials - as positive tests on the increase

A contingency ward was opened at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital at the weekend and has since been closed, the council’s scrutiny health and social care review group was told.

The impact of other illnesses as well as coronavirus is being felt, according to deputy medical director for the Luton and Dunstable Hospital Dave Kirby.

The hospital figures also cover part of Central Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

“We’ve six confirmed positive patients at the hospital,” said Mr Kirby. “This time last week we had two.

“We’ve no confirmed positive patients in critical care at the moment.

“But we do have a further eight who we strongly suspect are Covid positive, but for whom we don’t yet have a positive result.

“One of those is on a ventilator, so at the highest level of critical care.

“There have been no deaths from confirmed coronavirus in the past week or so, which is reassuring.

“As far as we’re concerned, we definitely feel as if we’re in a second wave or at least the early part of that,” he added.

“We’re also seeing an increase in other illnesses coming in. We’re at peak capacity in terms of our beds.

“At the weekend and into this week we opened a contingency ward, which we’ve subsequently closed.

“But that’s a stark reminder it’s not only Covid-19 we’re dealing with, but normal winter pressures as well.”

Mr Kirby explained that the situation is different to earlier this year “where we went from 0 to 50 cases overnight almost, and a lot of those were desperately sick”.

But he warned: “I don’t think there’s any doubt in our minds that this is definitely the start of a second wave.”

The council’s corporate director public health and well-being Gerry Taylor said the number of positive cases has risen in the last few days.

“At the end of August to the beginning of September it was about ten or 11 per 100,000,” she told the review group.

“Today’s report shows that we have 34 cases per 100,000.

“That’s similar to the national case rate figures for England and lower than some parts of the country, but much higher than we would like the rate to be in Luton.”

She and service director healthy lives and children’s integrated commissioning Lucy Hubber presented their “enhanced surveillance” system nationally to highlight its impact.

“It contacts cases and does some much more detailed conversation with them to see if there are epidemiological links,” Ms Hubber explained.

“That’s been really critical for us in developing our responses in Luton where we spot a cluster.

“What contact tracing delivers is some really rich information without which we would struggle with the planning of the interventions.

“It’s a fantastic shared resource between us and our partners in Active Luton, and it continues to be one of the foundations of the town’s response.”

The four messages remain the same of keep your distance, wear a face covering, wash your hands and isolate as soon as you’ve got symptoms.

“Those four things alone would really help us reduce the transmission in Luton,” she said.

“Some of the measures the Prime Minister has spoken about will hopefully support the reinforcement of these messages to our community.”