By Bill Heaney

A ward at Scotland’s biggest hospital has been closed to new admissions due to a coronavirus outbreak.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said “a number of positive cases” in a ward at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow have been confirmed.

This has resulted in the temporary closure of the ward to new admissions and contact tracing for all affected.

Ward patients who are not showing symptoms of Covid are being cared for separately from the confirmed cases.

A spokeswoman for the health board said its staff were following strict infection prevention, “to ensure we’re able to continue treating our patients without putting them at additional risk due to Covid-19.”

However, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, pictured left,  said:  “This is a serious and worrying development. The last thing we need is an outbreak of the infection in an area where patients are already vulnerable and where medical staff are already warning that they are understaffed.

“Patients and their families will want to know how this outbreak happened. The Health Secretary [Jeane Freeman] should outline what extra safeguarding has been put in place and the steps Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board are taking to prevent another outbreak happening.

“She should waste no time in reassuring patients in Glasgow that they are safe at the Queen Elizabeth hospital, explain how this infection outbreak occurred, reassure the public that lessons will be learnt and explain what the impact of this ward closure will be.”