Number of Covid patients in east London starting to fall

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both hospitals, is the second worst-affected trust in London, behind other east London trust Barts Health.

At the five hospitals run by London’s largest trust Barts Health, which includes Whipps Cross in Leytonstone, the number of Covid patients appears to be staying constant.

On January 19, the most recent day for which figures are available, there were 431 patients with Covid at the two BHRUT hospitals, with around an eighth - or 54 people - on ventilators.

While this is more than double the number of patients for most of April last year, it marks a gradual and seemingly consistent decline from the highest peak of 518 patients on January 11.

Read more: Covid infection rates falling in every London borough as PM eyes March 8 end to lockdown

In the same period, the number of patients at Barts hospitals remained fairly consistent at around 830, while the number of patients on ventilators rose slightly from 162 to 177.

Today, Health Services Journal reported the number of London Covid patients fell by a fifth in the last nine days, suggesting it could become the first region to “fall below the first wave peak”.

The number of covid positive patients in all English hospitals fell by 1,491 yesterday, the biggest one-day decline recorded since the start of the pandemic.

There are almost 31,000 hospital patients with Covid across England now, still significantly higher than the peak during April last year.

Patients are falling faster in the south of the country, with the slowest decline reported in the north west region of England.

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