YORK Hospital bosses say they will have to postpone more operations as they continue to deal with a record number of Covid patients.

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said yesterday that it had 257 Covid positive inpatients, seven of whom were in critical care.

A spokeswoman said the ongoing pressures meant that it would sadly continue to need to review upcoming planned operations and postpone some of them. She could not say how many ops would be postponed.

"These decisions are not taken lightly and we are sorry for the inconvenience and upset that this causes," she said.

"However with the number of Covid-positive patients we continue to have in hospital, these are the difficult decisions we need to make."

York Central MP Rachael Maskell said yesterday that the NHS was under 'severe pressure' and, sadly, mortality rates were increasing.

"I am hearing from more vulnerable constituents about feeling more isolated and scared," she said.

"I am deeply concerned by the Government's handling of the pandemic. The guidance issued is going to really impact on people. It is not just the high infection rate but people are really poorly.

"Cases of long Covid are also rising, so this is really worrying, not least as some are really poorly with this too.

"With testing due to end next week, Government are taking away an important tool for managing the pandemic.

"I know health professionals are very worried. If you cannot afford a test it could have a major impact on you visiting people who are vulnerable, ie in care homes."

She said this was what she had feared when she had questioned the Prime Minister last month about the removal of all Covid restrictions, which she branded 'reckless' at the time.

City of York Council's latest Covid data tracker report said yesterday that 19 care homes in the authority's area had a confirmed Covid-19 infection on Thursday and, in the seven days up to last Monday, 194 schoolchildren tested positive at 44 schools across York.

It said the city's latest ‘Exceedance’ rating, which compares the number of new cases over a 14 day period with the previous 6 weeks, was 'red,' indicating that the trend in the number of new cases was worsening.