• Video report by ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan

A hospital in Blackburn already has more Covid Patients are now more concerned about running out of oxygen than out of space, as one physician says, in April compared to the final epidemic.

Currently Royal Blackburn Hospital is at 25% of its capacity with 240 Covid-19 patients.

At the top of the first wave of the epidemic – in stark contrast to April – there were 140 patients in the hospital.

A critical care consultant at Royal Blackburn Hospital is critical of the pressures his team and the hospital have faced and told ITV News that local infections do not increase significantly.

Dr Ian Stanley said: “We can read in situations where the power of critical care was becoming compromised, unless the population’s infection was significantly reduced, but in a week or two we had a significant risk of reaching that position.”

However he added: “We did not go into that situation, our plans have started and our plans imply that we could not reach that situation but again the modeling we were seeing proved that if community performance did not decrease significantly there was a significant risk. That we will go into that situation.

A 38-year-old Covid-19 A patient in the hospital’s acute ward told ITV News he was saddened by the loss of his friend to the coronavirus.

Emma Morgan, who was admitted just a day earlier, said: “I’ve lost a friend in Corona and it’s not nice to see him go.

“And I’m here today to let people know how it feels and how it feels,” he added.

His comments as hospital physicians expressed fears that they might soon have to choose who to treat, as Blackburn England had the worst infection rate last week as local cases grew rapidly.

The hospital is still pursuing selective care, and the chief executive says they will continue it as long as possible.

They made the mistake of shutting it down too early during the first wave, he said.

The average age of patients here is in their 60s but there are also some worrying differences.

ICU Matron, Linda Gregson told ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan: “We’re seeing a lot of women this time around, we’re still seeing a lot of men.

“The average age group is about 3, but there are many gentlemen who are younger and also women.”

New data also show that 19% of the beds operated by the East Lancashire Hospital Trust, including Royal Blackburn, are now occupied by patients tested positive for Covid-19.

Blackburn had the worst rate of new infections in England last week.

Covid’s latest round of seven-day rates of new cases – there were 1,150 new cases in the region in the seven days to October 26 – is equivalent to a rate of 768.2.