The number of covid in-patients being treated by Sussex hospitals and trusts has gone up, according to weekly data, but has fallen compared with a month earlier.
NHS statistics indicated that there 64 patients in hospital with coronavirus last Sunday (17 March) – about 4 per cent of the total across the entire country.
The figure was up 28 per cent on the 50 patients being treated a week earlier on Sunday 10 March but down on the 74 patients in hospital on Sunday 18 February.
The biggest hospital trust in Sussex was caring for 14 in-patients with covid-19 last Sunday, according to the figures, up from 13 a week earlier, but down on the 34 in-patients four weeks previously.
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was treating the patients across its hospitals which include the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, Worthing Hospital, St Richard’s, in Chichester, and the Princess Royal, in Haywards Heath.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had 31 covid patients in its wards, up from 20 on the week before and 24 a month before, while East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust had 18 covid patients, up from 17 a week ago and 13 a month before.
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust had one in-patient with covid, up from none, and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs hospitals such as Mill View, in Hove, for mental health patients, had none again. A month earlier it had three.
The NHS England data recorded the number of people being treated in hospital with covid-19 by 8am last Sunday.
The total number of hospital patients across England with covid stood at 1,690 people, slightly up from 1,668 a week earlier but down about a third from 2,553 over the previous four weeks.