There were 990 confirmed Covid-19 patients being treated in hospital at 8pm last night. That is 50% below the peak on 18 January, and it is the first time the number has been below 1,000 since early January.
167 of those patients were in intensive care, 24% fewer than the peak two-and-a-half weeks ago. Meanwhile, the number of frontline healthcare workers contracting Covid-19 has fallen.
New data yesterday evening from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows the number of new cases of Covid-19 among healthcare workers was down by close to 40% last week - almost twice the rate of decline in overall new cases.
But by last weekend also, 66,000 healthcare workers had already received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Another 79,000 had