LATEST figures show more than 250 coronavirus patients are being treated at the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust.

The weekly NHS England report, which collates the number of patients with and without Covid on hospital beds, showed that on Monday, January 11 at 8am, there were 258 Covid patients being treated at the Countess Trust, the highest number yet during the pandemic.

It was the same number as non-Covid patients using adult general and acute beds (ie. not maternity or children's beds) at the trust that day.

Non-Covid patients are treated at the Chester and Ellesmere Port hospitals.

Earlier this week, Dr Susan Gilby, Chief Executive of The Countess of Chester NHS Trust, revealed that 61 per cent of all beds in her hospital were occupied by Covid-19 patients.

The most recent available data showed that on Tuesday, January 12, there were 253 Covid patients being treated at the Trust, compared to 262 non-Covid patients in adult general and acute beds.

Of those, 22 were on mechanical ventilator beds.

The most recent NHS England daily report showed that, sadly, 14 more deaths were recorded at the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust.

Cheshire West and Chester Council's chief executive Andrew Lewis said at Wednesday's Covid-19 Outbreak Board meeting that he did not expect the situation to improve at Cheshire hospitals before the end of the month.

Cheshire West's infection rate hit a peak on January 4 – the day a national lockdown was announced – of 624.9 per 100,000 people. However, since then it has begun to decline and the latest infection rate available – for January 9 – is 531.7.