THERE have been six coronavirus deaths and a rise in the number of Covid patients in Worcestershire hospitals this week, latest NHS figures show.

The latest data reveals the six deaths recorded for county hospitals came in the week up to February 4.

Five of the deaths came at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust sites - Worcestershire Royal Hospital, the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital, with the trust's total moving to 942.

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust saw a Covid-19 death, its total moving to 66.

The six deaths announced means in total there have been 1,008 Covid-related deaths in county hospitals during the pandemic.

Latest NHS data shows a rise in the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 - with 83 recorded on Friday, February 4, including five people in intensive care.

In comparison, on January 28, there were 71 people in Worcestershire hospitals with Covid-19 and five people in intensive care.

Meanwhile there has been a slight fall in the number of coronavirus cases overall in Worcestershire, Public Health England (PHE) figures show.

The latest figures show there were 7,163 cases in the week up to January 30 - a drop of 0.6 per cent on the previous week.

Worcester saw a rise of 12.5 per cent in the seven days to January 30 with 1,579 cases.

Malvern Hills saw a rise of 26.2 per cent in the seven days with 944 cases.

Wychavon, which includes Evesham and Droitwich, was down 8.4 per cent to 1,457 cases.

Redditch was down 4.5 per cent to 997 cases.

Wyre Forest, which includes Kidderminster, was down 8.7 per cent to 1,129 cases.

And Bromsgrove had a fall of 10.7 per cent to 1,057 cases.

The latest vaccination figures, up to February 3, show 87.2 per cent of Worcestershire adults have had a first dose of a Covid vaccine, 82.4 per cent have had a second, while 68.1 per cent have had a booster.