YORK Hospital has reached a landmark moment in the pandemic after revealing that it now has NO Covid patients.

A spokeswoman for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said this was the first time since the pandemic began in March last year that there were no patients being treated for coronavirus.

The trust, which runs York Hospital and also Scarborough Hospital, was treating a total of 242 Covid patients at the height of the most recent wave of the pandemic on January 26, with seven wards at York devoted to patients with the coronavirus.

The trust said today it had discharged a total of 2,168 patients since the start of the pandemic, or who were no longer being treated as having Covid.

A hospital spokesperson said: “That over 2,168 patients have successfully been treated for coronavirus and now discharged home from our hospitals to continue their recovery is a tremendous milestone, and is testament to the great care provided by our fantastic staff.

“It is also promising and reassuring that the overall number of inpatients who have tested positive for Covid-19 has fallen and is currently the lowest it has been since the pandemic began.

“It remains essential that we all continue to play a part to reduce the spread of the virus by having the Covid-19 vaccination when invited to do so.”

The news comes after the latest figures from Public Health England showed that the Covid infection rate is continuing to fall slightly in York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire.