THE number of Covid patients being cared for at Oldham's hospital trust is at the lowest point since October.

Figures released on Friday reveal Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs The Royal Oldham Hospital, was caring for 149 coronavirus patients as of Tuesday. The NHS England data shows the number of people being treated in hospital for Covid-19 by 8am on February 16 was down from 178 at the same day the previous week and 188 the a fortnight ago.

Those in serious enough condition to be on ventilation is also slowly falling, at 27 as of Tuesday, down from 32. New hospital admissions are continuing to drop, with an estimated 77 patients admitted at Pennine Acute Hospitals with Covid in the seven days to February 21. This compares with 95 the week before. Oldham’s director of public health Katrina Stephens said the borough hits its peak for cases later than other parts of the UK, adding: “In Oldham we’ve certainly still got people in hospital and whilst we’re not seeing lots of new patients going into critical care, we have patients who’ve been in there for many weeks and in some cases months.”

Across the borough almost 60,000 first vaccinations have been given to Oldham-registered patients.

Ms Stephens said: “At the moment Oldham’s vaccine uptake overall is high, but like other areas in the country uptake isn’t equal across all of the population. We do know there’s lots of myths and misinformation circulating about vaccinations. Any negative impacts are extremely rare, it’s a safe vaccine it has been through all the usual safety procedures.”