"I regret to inform you that our hospital is in crisis" - those are the opening words of an email sent by the medical chief of staff at the San Ignacio Community Hospital to hospital personnel.

She explains, quote, "a large number of our staff are out on sick leave due to being positive for SARS COVID 2. We also have one of our medical officers admitted at the moment, recuperating." End quote.

Reports to 7News say that at least 10 staff have tested positive for COVID19. This reportedly includes domestic staff, some nurses and doctors.

It's a worrying situation as COVID numbers have risen dramatically this week. A closer look at the most recent infographic sent out half an hour ago shows that there are now 3,488 active cases when on Monday, they were reporting 2,589 cases - that's an increase of of 900 active cases in four days!

And on Monday, the number of deaths reported was 148, but tonight's inforgraphic shows 170 COVID related deaths - which means that there have been 6 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, and 22 deaths since Monday!

Certainly, reaching crisis proportions and yesterday's report points to 37 active hospitalisations and 4 cases in the ICU.

Channel 7