THE number of patients in all of Devon’s hospitals following a positive Covid-19 test has fallen to its lowest figure since October – with no patients at all in North Devon Hospital.

As of Tuesday morning (Feb 16), there were 131 patients across the county in hospital after a positive test, down on the 195 as of the previous Tuesday, a drop of a third in previous seven days.

Patient numbers have fallen in all of Devon’s hospitals, and Devon’s figures are slightly inflated by the fact that they have been taking in patients from elsewhere in the country, including Somerset and Dorset, because in those regions, they are closer to capacity than Devon is.

In total there were 29 patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (down from 41 as of Feb 9), 34 at the Nightingale (down from 54), 23 at Torbay Hospital (down from 33), 42 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth (down from 62), 0 at North Devon District Hospital (down from 2), and three in Devon Partnership NHS Trust units (unchanged) although not all patients are local given some have been transferred to the region from elsewhere.

The figure for the RDE is the lowest since November 1, Torbay since January 10, Derriford since January 1, and North Devon’s no patients is the first time October 4 any of Devon’s hospitals has recorded that figure.

In Cornwall, the number of patients in hospital has fallen, down to 88 from the 129 as of last week.

And the number of patients in mechanical ventilation beds across the two counties is down as well to 22, from 27 last week, with 11 in Derriford, six in Torbay and five in Exeter. In Cornwall, the number is nine, down from 14.

The figures show the amount of patients in hospital following a positive COVID-19 test who are currently occupying a bed.

But not every patient would necessarily have been admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, with a number of patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital, or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.

But not every patient would necessarily have been admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, with a number of patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital, or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.