NHS Borders is seeking to reassure people who are anxious about the number of intensive care beds at the Borders General Hospital (BGH).

A health board spokesperson has released a statement after noticing "information circulating on social media" concerning the capacity of the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).

The information on social media, understood to be a shareable picture on Facebook, urged Borders residents to stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

The NHS Borders statement reads: "Whilst we appreciate that the sentiment behind the message is urging people to follow the instruction to stay at home, which of course we fully support, we also know that the information is causing significant anxiety within our community.

"So we want to reassure the people of the Borders that we have been preparing for the potential impact of COVID-19 for many weeks now.

"We have rearranged the wards and departments within the Borders General Hospital in order to increase the number of beds we have available to treat people, and this includes a significant increase in our ITU capacity.

"We are also training lots of clinical staff so that they can undertake additional duties as the number of people we are treating for COVID-19 increases.

"We know that it is an anxious time for everyone, including those of us who work for the NHS. However please make sure that the information you read comes from verified sources such as www.nhsborders.scot.nhs.uk/ and www.nhsinform.scot/ as well as our facebook and twitter feeds."