MORE than 60 patients are being treated in hospitals across north Essex and Suffolk latest figures have shown.

New data from the NHS shows there were 63 patients being treated at the East Suffolk and North Essex Trust as of Tuesday.

Of these 13 patients were in medical ventilator beds.

Overall this was down from the 72 Covid patients a week before but was the same number in ventilator beds.

Since December 9 the trust has recorded one Covid-related death.

Across Essex as a whole 193 beds were occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Read more >> 'Please reconsider' - health bosses in Essex make heartfelt plea to unvaccinated

The latest statistics come as Essex County Council’s health boss Dr Mike Gogarty said 60 per cent of Covid patients in hospital in Essex were unvaccinated.

Speaking to BBC Essex he said: “I haven’t seen recent data in Essex but certainly when we looked at it earlier – not ITUs – but in terms of overall hospital admissions it was about 60 per cent had not been vaccinated and about 40 per cent had been vaccinated.”

Vaccines - Mike Gogarty

Vaccines - Mike Gogarty

Almost 20,000 people in Colchester have received a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the past week, new figures reveal.

The booster jab roll-out has been scaled up in recent days amid concern over the spread of the Omicron variant in the UK, with daily Covid-19 cases reaching record numbers.

Data from the UK coronavirus dashboard shows at least 18,777 people in Colchester received a booster or third vaccine dose in the week ending Monday, December 20 – the latest available data.

That was up from 10,457 the previous week– a rise of 80 per cent.

A total of 87,713 people in Colchester had received a booster or third dose by Monday – at least 49 per cent of people aged 12 and over, based on the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service database.

In a video message, the Prime Minister said: “There is no doubt that Omicron continues to surge with a speed unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“We can’t rule out any further measures after Christmas – and we’re going to keep a constant eye on the data, and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect public health.”