Covid hospital numbers nearly halve

THE number of people in hospital in England with Covid-19 has nearly halved from mid-October – showing the latest wave of the virus is receding.

A total of 5,647 patients testing positive for the coronavirus were in hospital as of 8am on Wednesday November 9, says NHS England. This is down 23% from the previous week, and a fall of 47% since hitting 10,688 on October 17.

Patient numbers climbed in mid-September, driven by a surge in infections. Infections in England peaked at 3.1 million during the summer wave of BA.4/BA.5 Omicrom variants