Belfast health trust calls for nursing help as COVID-19 cases rise

LONDON (Reuters) - The Belfast Trust, which runs hospitals in the Northern Irish capital, called on nurses to work later on Sunday and overnight to help ease "extreme pressure" at two hospitals because of an increasing number of COVID-19 patients.

The number of new cases is still high across the United Kingdom, fuelled in part by a highly transmissible new variant and a relaxation in restrictions imposed to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

On Twitter, the Belfast Trust said: "We are under extreme pressure in the RVH & Mater (two hospitals in Belfast) as we care for an increasing number of Covid19+ patients, alongside emergency admissions."

"We are asking for help from our Trust nursing staff to work tonight & overnight."

Health is a devolved matter in Britain so Northern Ireland has pursued its own tailored strategy to tackling the pandemic, moving more slowly than England in relaxing COVID restrictions.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Susan Fenton)