{"id":820598,"date":"2026-11-01T09:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820598\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:18:25","slug":"face-masks-return-to-royal-bolton-hospital-as-covid-cases-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820598\/","title":{"rendered":"Face masks return to Royal Bolton Hospital as Covid cases rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  From Friday, October 30, staff, patients and visitors will be asked to wear a fluid-resistant surgical face mask when entering inpatient areas, including hospital wards.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The temporary measure has been introduced to help reduce the spread of flu, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/topics\/covid-19\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Covid-19<\/a> and other seasonal illnesses and protect vulnerable patients.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said the decision follows a significant increase in patients attending the Emergency Department with respiratory symptoms.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  At the end of October, there were 210 positive patient tests for Covid-19 or flu across the hospital, compared with an average of 51 during September.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Tyrone Roberts, chief nursing officer at Bolton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/topics\/nhs\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NHS<\/a> Foundation Trust, said: &#8220;We are currently seeing a high number of flu cases in our hospital, and it is important that we take sensible steps to reduce the risk of infection and protect our patients, visitors and colleagues.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;For some people, flu can be a very serious illness.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;By wearing a face mask in patient areas, everyone can play a part in reducing the spread of flu and other seasonal viruses.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We appreciate the support and understanding of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/health\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">patients<\/a> and visitors as we introduce this temporary measure.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We will continue to monitor infection levels closely and keep the requirement under regular review over the next few days.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Face masks will be available throughout the hospital and people are being reminded to wear them correctly by ensuring they cover both the nose and mouth, keeping them in place while speaking and disposing of them after use.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The trust said it will continue to monitor infection rates and review the requirement regularly.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Alongside the new measures, frontline NHS staff have been offered the seasonal flu vaccine to help protect themselves, colleagues and patients.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Residents who are eligible for a free flu vaccination are also being encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as possible.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Eligibility can be checked on the NHS website, while participating pharmacies are offering free vaccinations for those who qualify.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Health officials say the flu vaccine remains one of the best ways to protect against serious illness during the winter months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Friday, October 30, staff, patients and visitors will be asked to wear a fluid-resistant surgical face mask&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-820598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}