Fewer hospital patients in coronavirus hotspots

Data released by NHS England shows that the number of people in hospital with coronavirus fell in coronavirus hotspots in June and July.

The number of people dying or going into hospital with coronavirus has been falling across the UK for months, but since the middle of July the number of confirmed cases has started to rise.

The rise in cases has prompted Chris Whitty, the UK's chief medical adviser, to warn that we have ‘reached the limit of what we can do to open up society’ without allowing room for the virus to return. Despite this, the government has just announced further measures to ease lockdown.

A number of scientists have argued that the rise in confirmed cases could reflect more testing rather than more infections, and say that it may still be too soon for any increase in infections to translate into more people in hospital or dying with coronavirus nationally.

Leicester saw worsening infection figures throughout the early summer before Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a local lockdown at the end of the June. Blackburn then overtook Leicester as the part of the country with the highest rate of infection in July.

However, NHS England data shows that rising cases were not matched by an increase in the number of people in hospital in the NHS trusts that serve either of these councils. The number of people admitted to hospital for the first time with coronavirus did increase in Leicester in June, but the rise was much smaller than the rise in confirmed cases.