Hospitals in Cumbria were caring for 166 coronavirus patients in hospital as of Wednesday, latest figures show.
At hospitals run by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust – the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary and community hospitals – 96 people were registered as having coronavirus.
At Morecambe Bay University Hospital Trust’s hospitals – Furness General in Barrow, Westmorland General in Kendal and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, 70 people had COVID-19.
NHS England data shows the number of people being treated in hospital for COVID-19 on January 4 was up from 131 on the same day the previous week.
On December 28, 74 people were in north Cumbria’s hospitals and 57 people were being treated in the south of the county.
A month earlier, on December 4, 37 people in north Cumbria were in hospital with COVID-19 and 35 in south Cumbria’s hospitals.
Across England there were 9,332 people in hospital with COVID as of January 4, with 212 of them in mechanical ventilation beds.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalised nationally has increased by 70 per cent in the last four weeks, while the number on mechanical ventilators has increased by 78 per cent.