Covid patients in Devon hospitals halve in a week to lowest levels since October
As of Tuesday morning (March 2), there were 43 patients across the county in hospital after a positive test, down on the 89 as of the previous Tuesday
The number of patients in all of Devon’s hospitals following a positive Covid-19 test has fallen to levels not seen since the middle of October – and more than halved in a week.
As of Tuesday morning (March 2), there were 43 patients across the county in hospital after a positive test, down on the 89 as of the previous Tuesday.
And in Cornwall, the patients in hospital have also more than halved, dropping from 50 last week to 23 as of Tuesday.
There are no patients at all in the Exeter Nightingale Hospital – with February 26 seeing its final patients discharged – and both the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and Derriford Hospital both are at their lowest figure since October 19.
In total there were 12 patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (down from 22 as of Feb 23), 0 at the Nightingale (down from 17), 10 at Torbay Hospital (down from 16), 18 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth (down from 32), 2 at North Devon District Hospital (unchanged), and one in Devon Partnership NHS Trust units (up from 0) although not all patients may not be local given some Devon’s hospital were providing mutual aid to others.
The figure for the RDE is the lowest since October 19, Torbay since December 19, and Derriford since October 19.
In Cornwall, the number of patients in hospital has fallen, down to 23 from the 54 as of last week, with the 11 in Royal Cornwall Hospital beds the lowest figure for that trust since December 11.
And the number of patients in mechanical ventilation beds across the two counties is down as well to 16, from 22 last week, with eight in Derriford, five in Cornwall, two in Exeter, and one in North Devon.
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 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.