The number of Covid-19 patients in east London hospitals continues to rise.

There were 184 laboratory-confirmed Covid cases in across the five Barts Health NHS Trust hospitals as of 8am yesterday (December 22).

This compares with 154 on the previous Wednesday and 130 on December 10.

Of the current cases, 20 were newly-diagnosed in the previous 24 hours.

There were 29 Covid patients being treated in critical care beds or receiving enhanced levels of oxygen across the five hospitals.

These include The Royal London in Whitechapel, Mile End Hospital and Newham Hospital in Plaistow.

The latest rise follows figures that show Tower Hamlets and Newham have the two lowest uptake rates of Covid booster jabs of all local authorities in the country, as of December 19.

Barts Health also runs Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone and St Bartholomew's in the City of London.

During the pandemic, a total of 2,048 patients hospitalised with confirmed Covid have died at Barts Health hospitals, as of 5pm on December 21.

Over the same period, a further 22,228 Covid patients have recovered and been discharged.