Hospital staff must wear face masks to fight flu

Staff at Hull Royal Infirmary have been told to wear face masks after an increase in the number of patients being admitted with flu, hospital bosses have said.

The Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has asked staff to wear the coverings in all patient-facing areas in response to a "low uptake of the flu vaccine" in the local area.

Group chief nurse, Amanda Stanford, said the measures had been brought in after seeing an increasing number of cases of the virus over the past fortnight.

"All measures will be kept under constant review by our senior nursing and infection control teams," she added.

Ms Stamford said the hospital will also carry out clinical testing and group patients with flu together, on designated wards, to prevent the virus spreading.

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.