THE number of Covid patients being treated at York and Scarborough hospitals continues to hover at about a tenth of the peak numbers reached at the height of the winter wave in January.

Hospital patient numbers across the country are rising fast, but the York area appears -so far - to be bucking the trend.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said today that it was currently treating 24 confirmed and suspected Covid patients, with one in intensive care.

The figure is up from 20 yesterday but about the same as in the middle of last week and it contrasts with a maximum of 242 such patients at the winter peak on January 26.

The trust says a total of 2,247 patients have been discharged since the start of the pandemic,or are no longer being treated as having Covid, indicating that while new patients continue to arrive each day, roughly similar numbers are leaving after treatment.