ABOUT a quarter of the beds at York Hospital are now occupied by Covid patients after numbers hit a new record.

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said today it was now treating 291 patients who were confirmed or suspected of having Covid, of whom six were in intensive care.

The number compares with 215 at the height of the Alpha wave of the pandemic in January last year.

However, some of the current Covid cases are 'incidental', in that patients have come in because of some other ailment but have then tested positive.

A spokeswoman said that around a quarter of York Hospital's general and acute beds were now occupied by Covid-19 patients.

The hospital has repeatedly had to postpone planned operations because of the pressures created by the number of Covid patients.

The trust has said such decisions were not taken lightly and it was sorry for the inconvenience and upset that they caused.