Covid-19: Fully vaccinated health staff 'should still isolate'

Double-vaccinated healthcare staff should not be exempted from isolating in a bid to tackle staff shortages, a doctors' trade body has said.

It comes as two healthcare trusts issued an urgent appeal for staff.

The Irish News has reported that isolation figures at the Belfast Trust were up by more than 150% in a week.

Dr Alan Stout, from the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, said getting "infection numbers down" was more useful than isolation exemptions.

"At the moment, we have to balance the risk," he said.

"If we have a lot of healthcare workers and just a lot of people in general who aren't actually isolating after contact, we know from infection numbers we have at the moment, it spreads really, really quickly - and a healthcare environment is actually one of the biggest and most important places for spread of infection," he told Good Morning Ulster.

"So I would still urge an awful lot of caution, this is simply the realty of high infection numbers at the moment.

"The answer to this is not to try and compromise on safety and on infection control, the answer to this is get our infection numbers down."

He also said that although trusts were coming under admissions pressure, he did not believe it was necessary to reopen the Nightingale facility at Belfast City Hospital.

"The Nightingale was very much an ICU-focussed type of service and actually what we're seeing at the minute isn't necessarily the pressure on the ICU, it's on the general admissions, so some sort of overflow-type facility - and we've always talked about separating Covid and non-Covid," he said.

"So we've got to try and deal with the Covid numbers as they're coming through but also really preserve and protect the other services as best as we possibly can at the moment too," he said.

Two Northern Ireland health trusts appealed on social media for off-duty staff to come to work on Sunday evening and overnight due to hospital pressures.

The Belfast and South Eastern trusts said they were under "extreme pressure" due to a rapid increase in patients with Covid-19.

The South Eastern Trust said it had significant staff shortages due to the need for staff to self-isolate.

The Belfast Trust said the Royal Victoria and Mater hospitals were affected.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said some surgical procedures may be cancelled due to the "surge in demand".

In a statement, the Belfast Trust said pressures had arisen due to an intake of Covid-19 patients "in excess of predictions".

In a later tweet, Belfast Trust thanked those who had come forward but reissued an appeal for off-duty registered nurses.

Health Minister Robin Swann tweeted to say the trust did not make such requests of its staff "easily".

"Unfortunately it is necessary as we continue to maintain the services that are expected," he said.