Covid admissions to hospital fall for seven days straight in London and South East

COVID hospital admissions have fallen for seven days in a row in London and the South East.

Official data on daily admissions gives more hope the south - where the new coronavirus variant emerged - is recovering the third wave.

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The Government dashboard reports how many people are admitted to hospital every day, and a seven-day moving average.

The average has been declining every day for a week in London.

On January 13, the most recent day the data is available, the average was 771.

It's 12 per cent lower than a week prior, when the average was 864 on January 6.

But the number of patients being treated in London's hospitals has reached a record high, described as "alarming" by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile, in the South East the seven-day average on January 13 was 569 - 16 per cent lower than a week prior, when it was 662.

The East of England is starting to show very early signs of improvement, with the seven-day average of hospital admissions dropping from 478 to 447 in one week.

But elsewhere in England, daily admissions are still on the rise in the South West (at 297 per day, on average), the North West (441), Midlands (748) and North East and Yorkshire (437).

Passing the peak

The consensus among experts is that London and the South East have "passed the peak" of the third wave, and the regions are on the way to recovery.

However, it doesn't mean people can drop their guard, and must still stick to the restrictions.

Hospitals are still bursting at the seams with Covid patients, and the “stay at home” order is to relieve pressure on the NHS.

Figures show the number of Covid inpatients in London's hospitals has hit a record high, with 7,917 patients in a bed as of January 18.

It's 52 per cent higher than the worst day in the spring, when there were 5,201 inpatients on April 9.

The same goes for the South East, with 5,493 Covid inpatients, and the UK broadly, with a total of 37,475.

Dr David Strain, a clinical senior lecturer and honorary consultant, University of Exeter Medical School, said patients were spending longer in hospitals.

He told The Sun: "The difficulty with NHS pressures is the length of stay for patients. Covid admissions take about twice as long as other infections, for a multitude of reasons."

He suspects patients are in hospital for an average of 19 days, the same as in the first wave, compared to four days in September when younger and fitter people were being seen.

"At least half of the patients admitted on New Years day are still in a hospital bed," Dr Strain said.

"The 12% reduction in admissions isn’t easing the case load, the total numbers of people in hospital is still growing, and the ones that were admitted about a week ago are coming up to their sickest time point when demand on services is at its highest."