Hereford Medical Group: face masks back during 'wave of Covid'

The group, which runs surgeries including Station Medical Centre, said the rise, over the last five weeks, meant masks would help protect staff and patients.

It is the third surgery so far in Herefordshire to publicly announce a decision to return to masks, following Ledbury Health Partnership and Leominster's Ryeland Surgery.

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It said staff would be asked to wear face coverings, a decision it didn't want to make, and patients asked to "consider wearing masks when in the building whilst the current Covid wave passes".

The group said: "Covid cases are on the rise again and we have seen a five-fold increase in case numbers for our patients in the last five weeks.

"It is for this reason that we have reluctantly taken the decision to ask staff to once again wear face coverings.

"This is definitely not a decision that we wanted to make, but it is now clear that we are experiencing a further wave of Covid and therefore need to take steps to protect themselves and our patients."

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It added: "We will also be asking our patients to consider wearing masks when in the building whilst the current Covid wave passes.

"We are really disappointed that we have had to make this decision but hope that by making this decision now, it will reduce the length of time that we have to wear masks for."

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Hereford Medical Group runs Station Medical Centre, South Wye Medical Centre, Bobblestock Surgery, Quay House Medical Centre and Credenhill Surgery.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 2.7 million people in private households are estimated to have had Covid-19 two weeks ago, up 18 per cent from 2.3 million the previous week.

This is the highest estimate since late April, but is still below the record high of 4.9 million, which was reached at the end of March during the wave of infections caused by the BA.2 variant.