Number of patients with Covid in southern England highest for more than a year

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the figures are ‘no particular cause for concern’.

Ambulances outside the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in January 2021 (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Archive)

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in two regions of England has climbed to the highest level for more than a year, in the latest evidence of a sharp resurgence in the virus.

South-east England has now joined the South West in recording patient levels last seen in February 2021, surpassing the peaks reached in the previous surge of infections at the start of 2022.

A total of 1,956 people with Covid-19 were in hospital in the South East on March 21, the highest since February 19 last year, according to new figures from NHS England.

And in south-west England 1,365 patients were recorded on March 21, the highest since February 9 2021.

In both regions around half of people in hospital with Covid-19 are being treated primarily for something else rather than coronavirus.

(PA Graphics) (PA Graphics)

But the ongoing rise in patients testing positive for Covid – up 26% week-on-week in the South West and 20% in the South East – is another sign of the growing prevalence of the virus across the country.

The total number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in England currently stands at 12,753, up 21% week-on-week and the highest since February 1 this year.

In Scotland, patient levels have hit a new record, with 2,128 recorded on Sunday, beating the previous peak of 2,053 in January 2021.

Across the UK as a whole, 14,948 people with Covid were in hospital on March 18, up 22% week-on-week.

This is still below the recent UK peak of 20,047 on January 10.

It is also well below the all-time UK peak of 39,255, which was reached during the second wave of the virus on January 18 2021.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid (PA) (PA Wire)

Eastern England looks like being the next region to pass its January 2022 peak, with 1,484 Covid patients on March 21 – just below the 1,497 reached on January 10 this year.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday that despite the jump in infections and hospital patients, there was “no particular cause for concern”.

Mr Javid told BBC Breakfast that numbers were “still way below their peak”, with the latest rise “primarily due to the increased social mixing we’re seeing after the country’s opened up, but also the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron – which we know is on the one hand more infectious but, on the other hand, we know that our vaccines work just as well against this sub-variant.

“Taking all that into account, of course we keep the data under review, but there’s no particular cause for concern at this point.”

Figures published on Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that infection levels are continuing to rise across most of the UK, with 3.3 million people estimated to have coronavirus in the week to March 12, up from 2.6 million the previous week.

At the start of the year the figure stood at a record 4.3 million.

Infections in Scotland have already reached a new all-time high, however.

Some 376,300 people – around one in 14 – were estimated to have Covid-19 in Scotland in the week to March 12, up from 299,900 people, or one in 18, the previous week.