Thirty-five coronavirus patients have died under the care of the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in a week.

Between December 30 and January 5 there were 35 deaths across the trust’s three hospitals, up from 20 deaths the week before.

A total of 332 people have now died form Covid-19 in the trust’s care.

As of January, the trust’s main hospital, Princess Alexandra in Harlow, reported 210 beds were taken up by Covid patients, 15 of which were in mechanical ventilation (MV) beds.

A fortnight earlier there had been just 106 beds taken up by Covid patients, almost a 100 per cent increase in two weeks.

More than 1,000 new UK Covid-19 deaths were reported yesterday for the second day in a row while hospital admissions have risen above the first wave peak.

The Government said a further 1,162 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, the second consecutive day it has been above 1,000.

It is also the highest daily reported total since the peak of 1,224 reported on April 21.

It brings the UK total to 78,508, although separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 94,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The figures continue to be affected by a lag in the publication of recent data and will contain some deaths that took place

Meanwhile 3,600 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospital in the UK on January 3, the first time it has been higher than the peak of 3,565 recorded on April 1.