Three in five of all Covid-19 patients in hospital trusts in England are being treated primarily for something else, new figures show. Of the 13,645 patients reported as having the virus on April 19, 8,211 (60 per cent) were not being treated principally for Covid.
This is the highest proportion since these figures were first published in June 2021, and is up from 26 per cent at the start of December. In London the figure is as high as 74 per cent of patients while in eastern England it has reached 69 per cent.
The Midlands is at 67 per cent, but other regions are closer to 50per cent, including the North West (57 per cent), North East and Yorkshire (53 per cent) and the South East (also 53 per cent). South-west England has the lowest proportion, at 40 per cent, according to NHS England figures.
All hospital patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 need to be treated separately from those who do not have the virus, regardless of whether they are in hospital primarily for Covid or not. But the growing proportion of patients who are in hospital "with" Covid-19 rather than "for" Covid-19 shows how the current wave of the virus has not led to the same sort of pressure on critical care as in previous waves.
A total of 296 patients in all hospitals in England were in mechanical ventilation beds on April 19, compared with 773 at the start of December - and well below the 3,736 recorded at the peak of the second wave on January 24, 2021. Separate figures published by NHS England on Thursday show that average daily admissions to hospital of people testing positive for Covid-19 stood at 1,507 on April 19, down 21% week-on-week and the lowest number since March 14.
Admissions have fallen week-on-week in all regions.
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