Far fewer patients are being treated in Norfolk hospitals for coronavirus than when the country last went into lockdown.

In total 14 inpatients were diagnosed with the virus across the county’s three hospital trusts to the week ending October 9.

While this is up from six people diagnosed in the week starting Monday, March 23, the number of patients taking up hospitals beds is far lower than when lockdown was first introduced.

A total of 44 beds were occupied with Covid patients in all three Norfolk trusts in the week ending October 1, compared to 534 in the first week of lockdown.

Virus deaths and the number of people needing ventilator treatment are also far lower.

The last two coronavirus deaths in the region were recorded on October 7, one at James Paget and the other at the Queen Elizabeth. They are the only two deaths in the week up to October 11.

This is down significantly on the 16 deaths reported across the three Norfolk trusts in the first week of lockdown.

NHS figures also show there are currently no coronavirus patients on ventilators in Norfolk, with no virus patients needing a ventilator in Norfolk since July.

A total of 148 virus patients were treated with a ventilator across the three trusts between April 2 and April 9.

In Suffolk, inpatient diagnoses have also risen compared to the first week in lockdown, from 13 to 19. Figures also show seven confirmed Covid patients in West Suffolk Hospital now, compared with two on the day we went into lockdown.

But virus deaths and the number of patients needing ventilator treatment in Suffolk is also lower than the start of lockdown.

Admissions to hospitals in north west England, which has the highest rates, have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

There were 1,218 coronavirus patients in North West hospitals as of Sunday, up from 816 the previous week, and 914 in the North East and Yorkshire, up from 572.

NHS England’s medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, said hospitals are coming under increasing pressure as he announced plans for three temporary Nightingale hospitals to mobilise to deal with any surge in admissions.

It came as Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Steve Warburton told staff in a memo that it had reached a “critical point”.