Nearly 30 hospital staff contract COVID

Twenty-seven employees of the theatre and high dependency unit at the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester have tested positive for COVID-19.

Senior Medical Officer Dr Everton McIntosh confirmed that this has led to a shutdown of elective surgical operations. According to McIntosh, only emergency operations are being performed.

McIntosh, speaking on RJR's Beyond the Headlines yesterday, said the 27 COVID positive employees represent 30 per cent of the full complement. Manchester is the new COVID hotspot.

It has been seeing weeks of double-digit increases and on Monday recorded its highest one-day total of 81 cases. At present, the COVID ward at the Mandeville Regional Hospital is at maximum capacity.

McIntosh told RJR's Dionne Jackson Miller that the authorities are now "repurposing" another ward to accommodate an additional 16 COVID patients requiring hospitalisation.

In the meantime, a worried staffer has complained that the operating theatre is not being frequently cleaned and sanitised. But McIntosh has rebuffed that complaint although he could not immediately detail the cleaning schedule.

"The theatre is cleaned on a regular basis," he said. "It is something I have seen myself."