The number of Covid-19 positive patients in Burton and Derby's hospitals continues to rise.

There are now a combined 75 Covid-19 positive patients being treated in the three hospitals, up from 54 last week.

Royal Derby Hospital staff are currently caring for 38 patients with the virus, up from 32 last week. A month ago it did not have any Covid patients.

Queen's Hospital in Burton now has 15 patients with the virus, up from five a week ago.

Case numbers there a month ago sat at 14, due to a localised outbreak in some areas of the town.

At the height of the pandemic there were around 150 coronavirus patients in Derby and 100 in Burton.

The number of Covid hospital inpatients remains modest, around a quarter of the total across the three hospitals during the peak of the pandemic in April.

All three hospitals spent much of the summer with very few Covid inpatients.

The continued increase in hospitalisation related to the virus is mimicking the rise in cases in the general population across Derbyshire and the rest of England.

Cases in the community typically track three or four weeks ahead of those in hospitals.

With every area of Derbyshire, including Derby, now seeing a weekly case rate of more than 100 per 100,000 people, this could translate to a marked increase in people hospitalised by the virus, too.

The rate of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in each Derbyshire district for the week October 5-11 is:

Amber Valley: 108

Bolsover: 122

Chesterfield: 143

Derbyshire Dales: 106

Derby: 124

Erewash: 168

High Peak: 188

North East Derbyshire: 167

South Derbyshire: 105

For comparison, the average rate across England is 89 cases per 100,000 people, while in Leicester it is 178 and in Nottingham it is 892.