Coronavirus was the reason behind more than a third of staff absences at the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust on Boxing Day.

NHS England figures show 826 staff at the trust were off sick on December 26 – the latest date for which data was available.

Of them, 303 – 37 per cent – were off because they had Covid-19 or were self-isolating due to the virus.

That was a 13 per cent increase on a week before, when 269 Covid-related absences were recorded.

Across England, the number of NHS staff off work due to Covid increased from 18,800 on December 19, to 24,600 on Boxing Day – a 31 per cent rise.

NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said health services were on "a war footing", with Covid-related staff absences more than doubling in a fortnight.

He said new nurses and reservists were being recruited to deal with pressures, as Nightingale hubs were being set-up across the country to tackle a surge in coronavirus patients.

He added: "We don’t yet know the full scale of rising omicron cases and how this will affect people needing NHS treatment, but having hit a ten-month high for the number of patients in hospital with Covid while wrestling with sharply increasing staff absences, we are doing everything possible to free up beds and get people home to their loved ones."

He said keeping as many NHS staff as possible at work in the next few weeks would be essential.