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At least seven doctors at a major London hospital are feared to have been infected with coronavirus, the Evening Standard has been told.

The cases at University College London Hospitals, in Bloomsbury, where three patient deaths were announced yesterday, include an anaesthetist working in intensive care.

It comes amid concerns at the lack of testing of frontline staff and a shortage of fully-protective equipment.

The worst affected trusts are London North West Healthcare, which runs Northwick Park hospital, and St George’s University Hospitals. Both have recorded 15 patient deaths.

There have been 11 at Barts Health, the capital’s biggest trust, and 10 at UCLH.

At UCLH, a source said that one consultant had tested positive for Covid-19 and a second, a consultant surgeon, came home on Saturday with a fever and is off work.

A third consultant has developed symptoms and is off work. Two registrars have symptoms, one after a weekend shift.

The details of the other two doctors are not known.

The source said: “That is the tip of the iceberg.

"They are admitting one patient an hour with Covid… inpatient numbers are increasing by 25 per cent a day.”

It is not known how many of the UCLH staff developed symptoms from working in the hospital and how many from wider community transmission.

Anaesthetists and other intensive care doctors are responsible for intubating patients with severe breathing difficulties.

Inserting invasive breathing equipment into the airway can cause the patient to exhale or cough.

Doctors elsewhere in the hospital said routine X-rays on patients being treated for other conditions were picking up the presence of Covid-19 in the lungs.

This meant these patients had to be sent home to self-isolate.

Deserted London during Coronavirus - In pictures 48 show all Deserted London during Coronavirus - In pictures 1/48 A quiet Millennium Bridge PA 2/48 A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images 3/48 An empty Millennium Bridge PA 4/48 Visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Paul and Jill Ruddock gallery the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson PA 5/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 6/48 A sparsely-filled carriage on an Underground train in west London PA 7/48 A few people listen to a classical quarter performing in Covent Garden AP 8/48 A quiet Regents Street PA 9/48 Commuters walk through a quiet Waterloo Station at 9.00am AFP via Getty Images 10/48 Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern AFP via Getty Images 11/48 a near-empty Pret A Manger restaurant on the Strand AFP via Getty Images 12/48 A member of the public on the tube PA 13/48 Oxford Circus PA 14/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrod PA 15/48 Harrods PA 16/48 People walk through Chinatown PA 17/48 A view of Covent Garden PA 18/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 19/48 The Mary Poppins statue outside the closed Odeon Leicester Square PA 20/48 An empty Kings Cross tube station in London PA 21/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 22/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 23/48 An empty King's Cross tube station PA 24/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 25/48 Paddington Station Jason Collie 26/48 A couple sit at a restaurant on usually busy street in Clapham, Reuters 27/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 28/48 Bicycles remain in there racks outside an empty street near Euston station PA 29/48 Cambridge Circus PA 30/48 Leicester Square PA 31/48 Covent Garden PA 32/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrods PA 33/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 34/48 An empty cinema theatre in Canary Wharf PA 35/48 An empty terrace of tables outside a bar in Canary Wharf PA 36/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 37/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 38/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrods PA 39/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 40/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 41/48 People wait for a DLR train toward Canary Wharf at Mudchute statio PA 42/48 A view of Canary Wharf station in London PA 43/48 A view of Canary Wharf in London PA 44/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 45/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 46/48 A near-empty rush-hour train from Tring in Hertfordshire to Euston PA 47/48 A view of Canary Wharf in London PA 48/48 Twilight over London Jeremy Selwyn 1/48 A quiet Millennium Bridge PA 2/48 A woman wearing a face mask walks past Buckingham Palace Getty Images 3/48 An empty Millennium Bridge PA 4/48 Visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Paul and Jill Ruddock gallery the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson PA 5/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 6/48 A sparsely-filled carriage on an Underground train in west London PA 7/48 A few people listen to a classical quarter performing in Covent Garden AP 8/48 A quiet Regents Street PA 9/48 Commuters walk through a quiet Waterloo Station at 9.00am AFP via Getty Images 10/48 Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern AFP via Getty Images 11/48 a near-empty Pret A Manger restaurant on the Strand AFP via Getty Images 12/48 A member of the public on the tube PA 13/48 Oxford Circus PA 14/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrod PA 15/48 Harrods PA 16/48 People walk through Chinatown PA 17/48 A view of Covent Garden PA 18/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 19/48 The Mary Poppins statue outside the closed Odeon Leicester Square PA 20/48 An empty Kings Cross tube station in London PA 21/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 22/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 23/48 An empty King's Cross tube station PA 24/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 25/48 Paddington Station Jason Collie 26/48 A couple sit at a restaurant on usually busy street in Clapham, Reuters 27/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 28/48 Bicycles remain in there racks outside an empty street near Euston station PA 29/48 Cambridge Circus PA 30/48 Leicester Square PA 31/48 Covent Garden PA 32/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrods PA 33/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 34/48 An empty cinema theatre in Canary Wharf PA 35/48 An empty terrace of tables outside a bar in Canary Wharf PA 36/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 37/48 A commuter crosses an empty Waterloo Bridge PA 38/48 A quiet shop floor in Harrods PA 39/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 40/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 41/48 People wait for a DLR train toward Canary Wharf at Mudchute statio PA 42/48 A view of Canary Wharf station in London PA 43/48 A view of Canary Wharf in London PA 44/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 45/48 London Bridge Station Jeremy Selwyn 46/48 A near-empty rush-hour train from Tring in Hertfordshire to Euston PA 47/48 A view of Canary Wharf in London PA 48/48 Twilight over London Jeremy Selwyn

A UCLH spokesperson said: “The staff self-isolating are spread across different departments and disciplines.

"UCLH has sufficient stock of protective equipment for staff, who are following national guidance on its use.”

Elsewhere in London, Eunice Ouko, a nurse at Homerton hospital, said she faced a “torrent of abuse and disrespect” when challenging a family of six visiting a patient about the need for social distancing.

Croydon hospital has banned visitors to its adult inpatients wards. Most other hospitals permit one visitor.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust banned children from visiting parents.

NHS England today said 2.6 million face masks and 10,000 sanitisers were delivered to trusts in London last Thursday.

It said the more protective FFP3 sterile facemasks would arrive this week.

Northwick Park nurses were said to have resorted to Amazon to buy face masks.

There were also reports of staff wearing clinical waste bags on their head and feet due to a lack of PPE.

A junior doctor working in paediatrics in a major London hospital said today that children’s care was at “minimum staffing” levels as doctors moved onto adult wards to cover shift absences resulting from other medics forced to self-isolate.

She said: “No one has the WHO [World Health Organisation] recommended PPE… They keep downgrading the level of mask we need… it’s going to get so much worse because we are all going to get Covid from our patients and die, or be off sick.”

Meanwhile, Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, a practising doctor, has said “previously fit” people in their thirties and early forties with coronavirus are “fighting for their lives” in intensive care.

The Tooting MP has been doing shifts in St George’s Hospital. In a diary recorded for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, she claimed Boris Johnson’s “mixed messaging” could cost lives.

In other developments today: