YORK is now shaded in dark blue on an official map after its Covid rate soared to 218.4 per 100,000 people - but hospital patient numbers still aren't rising in response.

Public Health England said today that 460 coronavirus cases had been confirmed in the City of York Council area in the week to June 23, taking the seven day rolling rate past the milestone of 200 per 100,000.

That is still considerably less than the peak of 670 cases per 100,000 at the height of the second wave in January.

The average rate across the UK today was 134.3 and across England it was 128.7.

The rate in North Yorkshire was 111.5 after 689 cases were confirmed in the week, while the rate in East Yorkshire was 64.5 after 220 cases were confirmed.

The Selby district's rate was 158.9 after 144 cases, Ryedale's was 52.4 after 29 cases and Hambleton's was 60.0 after 55 cases were confirmed.

Meanwhile, the huge surge in case numbers across the region is still failing to cause an equivalent rise in Covid patient numbers at York and Scarborough hospitals, because of the vaccination of most older and vulnerable people.

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said yesterday that it had seven confirmed and suspected Covid patients, none of them in intensive care - a similar number to this time last week.

The surge in cases in January, when the older population was not widely protected by vaccination, caused patient numbers at the two hospitals to soar to a peak of 242 on January 26.