Antibody tests reveal how many medics on Fylde coast have had Covid-19 as fresh figures show how many people are in the Vic with coronavirus

Dr Jim Gardner, the medical director at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Clifton Hospital in St Annes, said more than 4,000 NHS heroes have been screened for Covid-19 since antibody testing started 11 days ago.

He said: “The positivity rate, for interest, is between 16 and 17 per cent. I understand from conversations with colleagues across the region that that entirely matches the kind of rates being picked up elsewhere in the north west.

“The figure from similar trusts in London is 23 per cent, so our plan is to keep testing throughout our workforce and, when we’ve done that, we can then begin to think about how we serially test colleagues in order to pick up changes in transmission rates and so forth.

“Some of that process will be guided by national information.”

There are 52 patients with Covid-19 in Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Clifton Hospital, including four in intensive care, Dr Jim Gardner said yesterday.

That number is a huge drop from 128 the week before – but that’s because the hospital has changed the way it reports its figures.

Until now, the figure included all patients who ever had the coronavirus, even if they had recovered, but it now only includes people who still have the virus.

Dr Gardner said there are a number of previously infected patients – who had been discharged – back at the Vic, though they no longer have the disease.

Giving an update yesterday, Dr Gardner said there had been four Covid-19 admissions last Wednesday, and said: “That indicates that we are by no means in a surge anymore, but there is still a background level of significant Covid illness and, as I say every week, that means we have to remain very alert to the possibility of any kind of surge, and of course our planning is based on that possibility.

"It means that all of us need to remain vigilant, to practice our own self distancing, to behave safely – thinking about our own health but also about the health of others.

“And that applies absolutely to all of our workforce and, of course, right the way across the Fylde coast community.”

Dr Gardner said each death noted at the hospital is “of course is a story and a sadness” but said “in excess of 370 patients” have been discharged after treatment, and added: “That number is continuing to rise at a steady state and I will continue to report on that.”

He urged continued vigilance, and said a second spike in the resort would be “damaging for so many people”.