THE number of Covid patients at York and Scarborough hospitals has risen to its highest level of the current wave of the pandemic - as another patient has died.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said today it was now treating 54 confirmed and suspected coronavirus inpatients across the trust.

This compares with zero Covid patients at the end of the long winter and spring lockdown in May, and with 242 such patients at the height of the winter wave of the pandemic in January.

The trust said seven of its Covid patients were currently in intensive care and a total of 2,463 patients had been discharged since the start of the pandemic.

NHS England said a total of 633 patients at the trust had died of Covid since the start of the pandemic, one more than yesterday.

Meanwhile, the latest data from Public Health England said today that the rolling rate of Covid cases in the City of York Council area had fallen slightly to 261.6 per 100,000 population from 269.7 on Thursday. The rate for England was302.7.

There was a similar fall in the North Yorkshire County Council area from 312.6 per 100,000 to 307.9, while the rate in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area rose very slightly from 367.1 to 368.6.