The number of Covid patients dying in east London hospitals almost halved last week and infection rates are a third of what they were at the start of the year.

Seven major hospitals in east London recorded 75 deaths between January 25 and 31, a decrease of 49 per cent from the previous week.

However, the decline in total deaths reported is about 40 percent, due to a further 79 deaths retroactively linked to Covid from previous weeks.

Barts Health NHS Trust and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) have seen by far the most Covid deaths in London since the start of the pandemic.

However, last week other London trusts began to outstrip them, reporting far more deaths from the virus every day.

Read more: Number of Covid patients in east London starting to fall

Barts Health, which manages five hospitals including Whipps Cross, saw 40 Covid patients die last week while BHRUT, which manages King George and Queen’s Hospitals, saw just 35.

The rate of Covid infections in Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering are a third of what they were at the start of the year, when the virus appears to have been at its peak.

On January 28, the Health Services Journal reported the biggest ever one-day decrease in Covid hospital patients across England and a marked drop across London as a whole.

The number of Covid patients in BHRUT hospitals has been gradually but consistently decreasing, according to the most up-to-date figures, although remaining constant at Barts.

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