Teesside NHS trust warns 'living with Covid' risking staff numbers

Staffing levels are being put under pressure by the spread of Covid, Hilton Heslop said

NHS staffing is being impacted by people with Covid passing it on before they realise they are infected, a health trust boss has warned.

Cases have risen by half a million in a week with 2.3m people - one in 30 - now estimated to have the virus.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS trust head of strategy Hilton Heslop said it was a "big concern".

"Lots of people are unaware they've got Covid because people are starting to live with it now," he said.

"They are realising later on they had Covid and, by that point, they've passed it on so it's impacting on our staff."

The rise in cases is being driven by two new fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron - BA.4 and BA.5.

'Under pressure'

People who have had Covid can be infected again but vaccines are helping to protect against serious illness.

Anyone over 75 who has not had a vaccine or booster in the past six months is being urged to get one, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

More than 39 million booster doses have been administered across the UK so far.

Health staff absences "are a concern"

Speaking to Stockton's health and wellbeing board, Director of Public Health Sarah Bowman-Abouna said hospital admissions had been increasing but not to the extent they were earlier in the pandemic.

"But that doesn't mean hospitals are not under pressure - they certainly are," she said.

"Staff absences, in particular, are of concern."