An investigation is underway into disturbing and false tweets claiming paramedics "cruise about maskless" by an anonymous social media user professing to work for the ambulance service.

The shocking comments include claims that ambulance medics at South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), which covers Kent as part of its patch, will refuse the vaccine and that the QEQM Hospital in Margate, where the person "works", is far from busy.

This is despite new NHS figures today revealing 125 Covid-19 deaths recorded at sites run by the East Kent Hospitals Trust in the last fortnight, with 40% of beds now occupied by a patient with the virus.

It means more people are dying with coronavirus in east Kent’s hospitals than anywhere else in England.

SECAmb says it is taking the matter extremely seriously, that Covid is 'very real' and the comments are false.

In one tweet yesterday, the poster wrote: "Sometimes, when you get a shift with a crew mate that's on the same wave length as you, you'll still catch us cruising about maskless. Masks up when heading back to the hospital though."

The tweeter, calling themselves Cohle, also claims hospitals aren't crippled and that wards are half full.

"Nobody is dropping dead in the street," they posted. "I've been an ambulance medic throughout this pandemic and I've not been to a single death by Covid in public or in private residence."

In another tweet, they claim "the pandemic is over, this is all political theatre" and that the "majority" of ambulance staff where they work will refuse the vaccine.

The person also makes a shocking claim they saw a clinician write Covid-19 on the death certificate of a 98-year-old who died from terminal lung cancer and who had not been swabbed.

The tweets, posted over a series of months with the most recent earlier today, have since been deleted.

A spokesman for SECAmb says they are looking into it.

"We will do our best to identify if this a member of our staff and, if it is, ensure we take action as appropriate," he said.

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