A British hospital waiting area was evacuated over coronavirus fears for two patients
Both patients spent two hours waiting alongside others at the New Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Hertfordshire last night, according to a witness.
Video of the incident circulating online showed a member of NHS staff explaining to patients why they’d been moved.
The 39-year-old witness, who asked not to be named, said: “We were in the waiting room and the nurse said we suspect its coronavirus, can we vacate the waiting room?
“We got moved down a corridor, maybe 40 metres away, into a separate area while they did a disinfectant clean.
“They’d been in there for two hours, one fella was saying ‘I sat next to them for the last two hours.’”
The witness said everybody’s details were taken and they were told they’d be contacted if the tests came back positive.
He said: “We were told: ‘We’ve got all your details, we’re going to do tests, and if it is that, we’ll come back and let you know.’”
The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospital in Welwyn Garden City, said it was aware of the incident but referred all enquiries to the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC).
The DHSC said it would not comment on individual cases.
However, in an update from today, the department said that 161 tests had been carried out on UK patients, zero of which had come back positive for the coronavirus.
There are currently no confirmed cases in the UK or of UK citizens abroad, and the risk to the public is low,” the update continued.
“The government is monitoring the situation closely and will continue to work with the World Health Organization and international community.”
No comments:
Post a Comment