A MOLECULAR biologist said clinicians are “wantonly placed at risk” being expected to enter wards with Covid-19 patients with inadequate protective equipment.

Dt Sterghios Moschos, an associate professor in cellular and molecular sciences in Northumbria University’s Department of Applied Sciences, has been in the news recently due to his research into a potential new way of testing for Covid-19.

He said it is justifiable that more testing should take place where rates of coronavirus are highest, which at the moment does not include the North-East.

“I don’t have insider knowledge on the numbers of tests per region but the outbreak numbers in the Midlands and the South East justify higher availability there.

“What I do know from reliable sources is that local hospitals are not testing frontline staff as much as the staff want and that the PPE is inadequate, placing them at risk.

“Clinicians and nurses are refusing to enter wards with Covid-19 patients, and rightly so. We depend on them and they are being wantonly placed at risk.”

Dr Moschos has led a team at the Newcastle-based university which has secured funding to further develop an innovative breath collecting device to aid disease diagnosis, including the new Covid-19 strain of coronavirus.