NEW coronavirus patients have been admitted to intensive care at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, a doctor has revealed.

The admissions come as four council areas in Gwent's Aneurin Bevan University Health Board region maintain local lockdowns in a bid to curb an autumn spike in virus cases.

Some of the intensive care patients have no pre-existing health conditions and "are much younger than you would think," ITU consultant David Hepburn said in a video update on the Covid-19 situation in Gwent.

Dr Hepburn has shared frequent insights into the public health crisis response in Gwent – he himself was taken ill with Covid-19 in the spring, during the early days of the pandemic's first wave.

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Speaking today (Monday), Dr Hepburn said he was "not sure how bad it was going to get" now that new patients were being admitted to intensive care.

He thanked people for following the public health guidance and local lockdown rules – acknowledging that "it has been really difficult" to keep up with "advice changing all the time".

He added: "Everything you're doing is really helping the hospital and the whole health board to keep our services running.

"The main thing we want to do this time is to not allow everything routine to be overwhelmed by the response to Covid.

"It's really important we keep our elective operations running; that outpatient clinics and cancer care... keep going."

Thanking people for their efforts, Dr Hepburn urged Gwent to "keep up the good work" and remember that coronavirus was "still around" and "can affect anyone".