The number of hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients in Essex has almost doubled in one week and is now close to a third of total capacity.

Essex County Council has released data that compares hospital admissions as of Tuesday, 29 December, with one week earlier.

As at 29 December there were 1,107 beds occupied by confirmed COVID-19 patients in Essex hospital trusts. This equates to 32 per cent of Trust capacity and is 45 per cent higher compared to bed occupancy the week before.

And the number of beds taken by those suffering from coronavirus is expected to rise in the coming days and weeks in line with the steep rise in new infections in the county.

A spokesperson for Essex County Council said: "We would expect hospital admissions, diagnosis and occupancy to lag behind community cases by a period of four to eight weeks."

The graph illustrates the growth in the number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in recent weeks.