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A hospital trust has introduced 'enhanced internal measures' to combat an increasing number of Covid patients.
Latest figures show Medway NHS Foundation Trust has 93 confirmed cases at Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, eight of whom are on a ventilator bed.
As of Monday, the hospital had recorded a total of 244 coronavirus deaths with 28 added since November 8, whereas only two deaths were recorded in the week before October 14.
The death rate could rise further in the coming days with some post-mortem tests and patients who have died, returning positive test results not yet recorded.
In the week before November 14, the hospital had the highest number of inpatient covid deaths of any trust in the the South East region, and second highest outside the North West, North East and Midlands areas.
Kent and Medway local authority areas have seen a significant increase in cases in the last 10 days and Kent County Council has confirmed it is requesting supplies of rapid testing kits.
In a message to staff this morning, Medway NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, James Devine, said: "The hospital is currently experiencing increased pressure.
"You may have also seen coverage reporting the trust has declared a critical incident and I wanted to let you know this is not correct.
"As part of our contingency planning we have introduced enhanced internal measures but a formal incident has not been declared.
"We are currently busy and are experiencing an increase in the number of patients at this time, however, our services are operating as normal and patients are being cared for safely.
"While we are seeing an increase in demand for our services due to an increase in coronavirus patients, we are working with NHS partners across Kent and Medway to maintain services for our patients and will continue to review our approach."
Across Medway there have been 1,447 cases confirmed in November taking the total as of yesterday to 3,663.
There were 787 cases in the seven days to November 12 with the infection rate soaring to 282.5 per 100,000 people – which has doubled since November 1.
However, there is a major issue in neighbouring Swale – most of which falls in the Medway hospital catchment area.
It now has the third highest infection rate in England with 589.7 cases per 100,000 people.
The borough saw nearly 900 new infections reported in the week up to November 13.
Infectious disease specialists say the sharp rises are not solely down to an increase in testing.
Experts say the number of people getting sick during a surge increases adding to the numbers of symptomatic people, hospitalisations and ultimately deaths following the same pattern.
