Coronavirus rates in Croydon have started to creep up as more than twenty patients are being treated

By Tara O’Connor, local democracy reporter

Coronavirus rates in Croydon have started to creep up and now more than 20 Covid-19 patients are being treated at the borough’s only hospital.

Croydon University Hospital is currently treating 25 coronavirus patients, of varying ages from their 30s to 90s.

The case rate for the seven days up to June 2 was 50.9 per 100,000 this is up from the 41.9 cases per 100,000 in the week up to May 26, the week before.

While this is a slight increase it is still nowhere near the peak in Croydon which at its worst saw a rate of more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people in January.

And while there are now more patients in hospital, government data shows that just two at Croydon University Hospital are on ventilation.

Chief nurse Elaine Clancy is in charge of the Covid-19 response at Croydon Health Services Trust.

She said: “We are currently treating 25 patients in their 30s to 90s for Covid-19, with the vast majority being treated on our general wards and very few in intensive care.

“We have a number of patients who have a range of underlying health conditions, some of whom are yet to get their vaccine, further emphasising the importance of getting the Covid jab to protect yourself and others.”

The hospital recorded two coronavirus deaths in May and has not recorded any since.

The cases include a number of people with the Delta variant first found in India, this is the most dominant strain nationally now.

Just two per cent of those hospitalised in England with the Delta variant had received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccination, the government said on Monday.