THE number of people in hospital in Herefordshire with coronavirus in October has been revealed in new figures.

NHS England data shows on three days in October, Wye Valley NHS Trust was treating 25 patients with coronavirus.

Between October 24 and 26, the total number of beds taken by confirmed Covid-19 patients was 25. This compared to a peak of three in September.

The number of beds taken by patients with coronavirus averaged 13 during October. This is up from an average of one in September and August, and two in July.

In April, the number of coronavirus patients at the Wye Valley NHS Trust averaged at 30, which went down to 28 during May and 14 in August.

The NHS England data also shows 10 people with Covid-19 were admitted to the Wye Valley NHS Trust in October, up from one in July, August and September.

This is still significantly lower than 22 admissions between March 19 and March 31, 34 in April, 35 in May and 23 in June.

In total, between March 19 and October 31, 131 patients were admitted to the Wye Valley NHS Trust with Covid-19.

NHS England guidance on the Covid-19 hospital activity statistics says: "The collections were activated at short notice and the content of the collections has evolved as the incident has developed.

"The data collected is classified as management information. It has been collected on a daily basis with a tight turn round time.

"No revisions have been made to the dataset, where known errors have come to light trusts have made the appropriate correction in the following day's data.

"Any analysis of the data should be undertaken with this in mind."

It adds the data is collected on a daily basis, and this publication is updated monthly.

Mechanical ventilation beds at the trust, which are used by seriously ill coronavirus patients, were empty between July 15 and September 23.

But on September 24, one of these beds was occupied by a coronavirus patient. One bed was occupied until October 21. It was only on October 4 and October 5 when two beds were in use during this period.

The beds were empty then for three days. One or two beds were then in use for the rest of the month.

The data which shows when these beds were occupied covers from April 1. April 5 was the day when most mechanical ventilation beds were taken, with 10 in use.

The graph below shows the number of coronavirus patients admitted, the average number of beds taken, and the average number on mechanical ventilators each month.

In separate figures from NHS England, it's been revealed 66 people have died at the Wye Valley NHS Trust after testing positive for Covid-19.

Public Health England figures show that throughout October 527 tested positive for coronavirus.