Latest NHS figures show that there were 77 people in hospital across Devon and Cornwall following a positive COVID-19 test as of last Tuesday.

The NHS England figures, released on Monday, give the latest details of the admissions and diagnoses of coronavirus patients by hospital trust.

It shows that as of Tuesday, October 20, the most recent date the information is available for, there were 73 people in Devon's hospitals and four in Cornwall – up from six across the two counties at the start of October.

Of the 77 patients, there were 30 in Torbay Hospital, 22 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, 14 at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, seven in the North Devon District Hospital, three at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, and one Cornish Partnership Trust hospitals.

As of October 20, there were six patients in Mechanical Ventilation beds – two in Torbay and North Devon, and one in Exeter and the Royal Cornwall hospital.

The figures show the amount of patients in hospital following a positive COVID-19 test, but not necessarily every patient was admitted due to COVID-19, with a small number of patients either contracting the virus inside the hospital, or being admitted for unrelated reasons but subsequently testing positive asymptotically when given routine tests.

NHS England figures also show that since October 14, there has been ten deaths of patients at Torbay Hospital within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, as well as two deaths at North Devon District Hospital and two deaths at Derriford Hospital. The last hospital death in Cornwall occurred on October 8.