Covid in Hampshire: About 350 people are being treated in county hospitals

Of these cases across the county and the Isle of Wight, 16 patients are on ventilators.

Health bosses said hospitals across the county are coping with an increase in cases but residents have been urged to continue to follow the rules as the number of Covid-19 cases across the county is on the rise.

The numbers were revealed at a meeting of the county council’s health and adult social care select committee.

Dr Andrew Bishop said: ‘We have between 3,000 to 4,000 hospital beds in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and at the moment there’s about 350 patients in these beds who are suffering with Covid and we have about 150 intensive care beds and the number of patients on ventilators due to Covid is about 15 or 16 at the moment.’

He said that hospitals are coping with the increase in Covid cases.

But he added: ‘If all we had to do was Covid we would be well within our capacity but it would be misleading to suggest that it is not on the increase and that is a significant increase from this time last month.The issue is that that is not the only thing going on in our hospital. Our hospitals are now experiencing the pressure that we usually see at this time of the year.’

Members were told that the total number of positive cases in Hampshire is now 12,426.

SEE ALSO: The next areas to see mass coronavirus testing

A total of 1,737 cases was recorded over the past seven days and the weekly rate for Hampshire is now 125.6 per 100,000 people while the overall England weekly rate is 243 cases per 100,000.

Simon Bryant, director of public health at the county council, stressed the need for residents to continue to comply with the rules.

He said: ‘The figures are going up. We are not in the place of the north west of England but it is still concerning.’

Members were also shown a graph revealing that the highest weekly rate until November 4 was recorded in Portsmouth (206.6 new cases per 100,000 people), followed by Southampton (175 new cases per 100,000 people in seven days) and Havant (162.4 new cases per 100,000 people in a week).

Lockdown restrictions will remain until December 2.