THE soaring Covid rate in York has - so far - failed to cause a major surge in hospital patient numbers.

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said today that it was treating seven Covid patients at its two hospitals in York and Scarborough, the same number as yesterday.

None of the patients requires intensive care treatment, as was the case yesterday.

The hospitals were treating 242 Covid patients at the height of the second wave on January 26 but briefly had no such patients in May.

The total number of Covid patients discharged since the start of the pandemic stands at 2,184, the same as yesterday, indicating that no one went home yesterday but nor was anyone admitted.

The rolling seven day Covid infection rate in the week to June 16 was 89.7 cases per 100,000 population, which compares with just under 10 at its lowest point in May but with 670 at its peak in January, and which is slightly higher than the UK average of 89.3.