An estimated 95,000 to 167,000 people may have caught Covid in hospitals between June 2020 and March 2021, a new Oxford study shows.

Data from 145 English NHS acute hospital trusts was assessed in the University of Oxford study including 356 hospitals with a combined bed capacity of approximately 100,000.

Incidence of Covid infection, staff absences due to the virus and classification of the likely source of infection were all taken into account.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire restaurant owner on low food hygiene rating

The researchers said: “These findings reveal the previously unrecognised scale of hospital transmission, have direct implications for targeting of hospital control measures and highlight the need to design hospitals better equipped to limit the transmission of future high-consequence pathogens.”

Findings suggest that one per cent to two per cent of all hospital admissions resulted in an infection over the study period.

The study also indicates that the lowest rates of infection were in the south-west England and London regions.

Authors of the study say that findings could inform measures to help reduce hospital transmissions, protecting vulnerable patients and healthcare workers as well as reduce community transmission.

They suggest that the findings reveal the scale of hospital transmissions and highlight contributing factors, including a limited number of single rooms.

The study also found that vaccination of healthcare workers was associated with lower infection rates.