The number of coronavirus patients in hospital is expected to decline sharply as the lockdown and the vaccination programme significantly reduce the rate of transmission, according to the latest projections.
Official figures shared with Downing Street suggest that the number of Covid-19 patients in English hospitals will fall from the nearly 20,000 now to 9,000 by mid-March. In Scotland there were 1,470 coronavirus patients yesterday, a drop of more than a quarter from the peak of 2,050 three weeks ago.
The decline north of the border is running ahead of the best-case scenario, which was that cases could fall below 1,000 by early March.
However, progress remains precarious and Holyrood government forecasters warned that cases could rise again if progress was not sustained, and the
