St Mary's Hospice, Ulverston, announces Covid-19 outbreak

St Mary's Hospice announced on Wednesday that the outbreak has affected a 'small number' of staff members and has not resulted in transmission within the hospice, nor has it not affected any patients.

As well as cancelling events, which included a Christmas carol service involving staff and volunteers, the Light Up A Life service, which was due to take place at Cartmel Priory this Sunday, has also been cancelled.

A spokesman for St Mary's Hospice said: "The first couple of people came down with Covid on Monday and Tuesday but by yesterday (Wednesday) it became apparent that we had a few more cases among the staff.

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"It's such a shame that we had to cancel the Light Up A Life event - it's nice for the families of people that have died that year, but we can't just risk any more people coming down with it, and it's still prevalent in the area.

"We've been able to manage but it's meant a few people coming in on their days off.

"We've stopped taking admissions, just to be on the safe side, but hopefully we can start again by the weekend.

"We've done quite well in that this is the first Covid outbreak we've had since the start of the pandemic.

"We've had a few staff come down but only in isolated cases - this is the first time it's become a public health issue.

"Obviously the thing that comes over and above everything, as you'd expect from the hospice, is patient care so we've restricted visiting a little - obviously if it's an end-of-life case we'll allow visitors in.

"We've also re-introduced mask-wearing, which we'd dropped.

"It would be easier to say nothing and hope it goes away, but we want to be as honest and open as we can.

"Obviously, the people with us are often very unwell, but being looked after by us is better than the alternative. 

"We're delivering the same level of care as we've always done, and hopefully soon we'll be able to start taking admissions again."