The number of Covid-positive patients in hospital across Devon and Cornwall has fallen in the last week – as Exeter's Nightingale Hospital has taken in its first patients.

NHS England figures show that as of Tuesday morning (December 1), there were 255 patients across Devon and Cornwall, in hospital after a positive Covid-19 test. This compares to 272 as of November 24.

Patient numbers within hospitals in Cornwall have decreased, as they have at the Royal Devon and Exeter, Derriford Hospital and Torbay Hospital – the latter for the third week running – but there has been a rise in patient numbers at the North Devon District Hospital.

And the Nightingale Hospital in Exeter has taken in its first patients, with 20 occupying beds as of Tuesday, having opened on Thursday, November 26.

The figures show there were:

- 101 patients in the Royal Devon and Exeter (down from 128)

- 45 in Derriford Hospital in Plymouth (down from 53)

- 28 in Torbay Hospital (down from 35)

- 37 in North Devon District Hospital (up from 29)

- Five at the Royal Cornwall Hospital (down from nine)

- Six in Cornish Partnership Trust hospitals (unchanged)

- 12 beds at Livewell SouthWest facilities in Plymouth (up from 11)

- One bed at Devon Partnership Trust facilities (unchanged)

- 20 patients at the Nightingale

And the number of patients in Mechanical Ventilation beds has fallen as well, dropping from 21 down from 19, with two patients in Torbay Hospital, five at the RD&E, and six North Devon District Hospital and at Derriford Hospital, with none in Cornwall.

The figures show the amount of patients in hospital following a positive COVID-19 test who are currently occupying a bed.

But not every patient would necessarily have been admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, with a 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.

Health bosses had previously said that it would not be unlike the end of November when the impact of the second lockdown would begin to have an effect on hospitals in the region.

Across the wider South West, admissions to hospital are down 20 per cent on the previous week, with bed occupancy by Covid patients down 10 per cent.

Hospital admissions in theory should continue to fall until the end of December as the impact of the easing of the second lockdown on December 2 won't begin to affect hospitals under the end of the month, due to the lag between infections, cases, and people falling ill enough to need hospital treatment.