HEALTH bosses have welcomed a drop in Covid-19 patients being admitted to hospital in north Essex.

East Suffolk and North Essex Trust was caring for 157 coronavirus patients in hospital last week.

The number of beds occupied by people who tested positive for Covid-19 has decreased by 64 per cent in the last four weeks – 28 days ago, there were 440.

Pam Green, chief operating officer of the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We now have significantly lower numbers coming into hospital “That is really important for the survival of our population because it means if they’re not coming to hospital, they’ve not got the severe range of the symptoms.

“But we’re still experiencing higher levels than the first wave, one because that actually saw quite low volumes compared to what we’ve just been seeing with the new variants.

“There still is a demand in the moment in our system for hospital beds, but it’s reducing every week, which is great news.

“If you draw a line through the vaccination rates as well, you could draw the assumption that the vaccine is starting to be really effective with reducing hospital admissions.”