Nearly 40% Of UK's COVID-19 Hospital Cases Came From Visits For Other Illnesses

An investigation from the Telegraph newspaper in London found that in some cases nearly 40% of COVID-19 infections came from hospital visits for other reasons.

Analysis from the newspaper published Wednesday found “thousands” of patients acquired COVID-19 in the hospital while they were being treated for unrelated illnesses.

For Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the investigation uncovered 139 out of 357 of patients treated for the infection, close to 40%, caught the virus in the hospital.

Since August, the newspaper reported, more than 16% of the people treated for COVID-19 at the hospitals it investigated contracted the virus while undergoing treatment for something other than the virus.

Jeremy Hunt, the head of the British Health and Social Care Select Committee, said there’s no justification for a high infection rate of COVID-19 inside hospitals.

“These are alarming findings that will cause understandable concern for patients and their loved ones,” added Jonathan Ashworth, Hunt’s shadow from the opposition Labor Party.

A spokesperson for the British National Health Service said the revelation was not unexpected.

"When infections in the community are high, NHS staff and patients are more likely to be affected so it is hardly surprising that following an almost twentyfold increase in COVID cases since August, that cases in staff and patients increased also,” the spokesperson said.

The British government reported an average of 16,578 new daily cases of COVID-19 and 533 deaths attributed to complications from the infection as of Wednesday.

The Telegraph added that the findings are likely to irritate a public frustrated with the restrictions in place to control the pandemic and bruise the faith in the national health care system.

The Telegraph’s findings follow British approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19. The first injections were delivered earlier this week.

“The approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in the U.K. marks a momentous step in our fight against COVID-19,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. “But we still have some way to go and everyone needs to keep following the rules to keep the virus under control.”