The number of people in hospital across Devon and Cornwall following a positive COVID-19 test has risen by 20 per cent in the last week.

The NHS England figures, released this morning, give the latest details of the admissions and diagnoses of coronavirus patients by hospital trust.

It shows that as of Tuesday, October 27, the most recent date the information is available for, there were 99 people in Devon’s hospital and four in Cornwall.

The Devon figure has risen by 73 as of Tuesday, October 20, but there has been no change to the total in Cornwall.

Of the 103 patients, there were 33 in Torbay Hospital (up from 30), 32 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth (22), 23 at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (14), 11 in the North Devon District Hospital (7), four at the Royal Cornwall Hospital (3), but no-one in Cornish Partnership Trust hospitals (down from 1).

As of October 27, there were nine patients in Mechanical Ventilation beds – two in Torbay, Derriford and Exeter, and three in the Royal Cornwall hospital – up from six as of October 20.

The figures show the amount of patients in hospital following a positive COVID-19 test who are currently occupying a bed. But not every patient would necessarily have been admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, with a small number of patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital, or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.

In the last seven days, nine people have died in hospitals in Devon following a positive COVID-19 test, with one in North Devon, Exeter and Plymouth, and six in Torbay.