A WOMAN with dementia contracted Covid-19 in the health trust unit where she was confined for her own well-being, an inquest heard.

Katherine Brown, 74, had been detained under the Mental Health Act since March at Meadowfields NHS psychiatric community unit for the elderly in Dringhouses, said senior North Yorkshire coroner Rob Turnbull.

Reading a statement at Northallerton Courthouse, he said she tested positive for Covid-19 on April 24.

In early May she developed pneumonia and she died on May 9.

In his statement, psychiatrist Dr Jeffrey Clarke said Mrs Brown had been referred to the community mental health service in April 2019.

She was admitted to Meadowfields in March 2020.

He gave the cause of death as Covid-19 and said the Alzheimers and dementia she already had before contracting the coronavirus had contributed to her death.

Mr Turnbull recorded a finding of death by natural causes.

Inquests do not have to be generally held into deaths from Covid-19.

But by law, he has to hold an inquest into the death of anyone deprived of their liberty by law, including those detained for their own well-being under the Mental Health Act.

The Meadowfields unit is run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust., which provides psychiatric services for York.