THE number of Covid patients being treated at York and Scarborough hospitals has finally fallen - but health chiefs believe it still may not have peaked as yet.

The York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said today that it currently had 219 confirmed and suspected Covid-19 inpatients Trust-wide - down from 227 on Wednesday.

The trust said a further 15 patients had been discharged into their usual place of residence or were no longer being treated for Covid-19, bringing the total of discharged patients to 1,518, but the number of patients in intensive care had risen from 11 to 12.

The number of patients with coronavirus has been rising steadily through January and this is thought to be the first reduction in weeks.

But a trust spokeswoman said that although there had been a 'slight dip' over the last twenty four hours, the trust expected it would continue to admit Covid-positive patients and anticipated it would be experiencing a peak in patient numbers over the coming days, before this started to decrease.

"The number of Covid-positive patients in York Hospital remains higher than previous peaks in the pandemic," she added.

The patients are being treated on seven wards at the hospital, with the trust saying it is not at capacity and has comprehensive plans to release additional beds and staff as needed in response to growing numbers of Covid patients.