A woman in her 70s is the latest person to die from coronavirus at a Norfolk hospital.

NHS figures show the woman died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn on Saturday, October 10.

Her death brings the total to die at the hospital from Covid-19 to 156.

Deaths have also occurred at the hospital on October 7 and September 26. Prior to that, the QEH had not seen a fatality from the virus since July 9.

Latest figures also show deaths at the James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Gorleston on October 7 and 11, and at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) on September 29.

Cases are on the increase again across Norfolk after numbers fell off over the summer.

As of yesterday 28 people with the virus were being treated in Norfolk’s three hospitals - 13 in the JPUH, 10 in the QEH and five in the NNUH.

Caroline Shaw, the QEH’s chief executive, told a meeting of the Norfolk and Waveney Health and Wellbeing Board that the increase was already having an impact.

She said: “With double the number of Covid patients we’ve seen this week, we’re having to take beds out.”

Some patients whose operations at the QEH were delayed during the first wave of coronavirus are still waiting for treatment.

But the hospital hopes its recent purchase of the private BMI Sandringham Hospital, which stands in its grounds, will help cut its waiting lists.

The BMI Sandringham has two operating theatres and 32 beds mostly in single rooms.

It will allow elective procedures to go ahead in a separate unit to the main hospital as it steps up the fight against Covid-19 over the challenging winter months.