The number of Covid-19 patients in Kent hospitals has fallen to nine - despite cases more than doubling in a month.

Latest figures show the number of occupied beds has dropped from 12 since September 3, with only a single person requiring a ventilator.

At the same time, the Office for Nationals Statistics reported the first week since March in which no coronavirus deaths were recorded in the county.

It comes despite 886 people in Kent testing positive for Covid in September, up from 361 in August.

Yet while cases more than doubled last month, the latest statistics released by the NHS show that on October 1 the number of coronavirus patients in Kent hospitals had dropped to nine.

For comparison, on April 20, during the height of the first wave, 534 hospital beds in the county were occupied by people suffering with Covid and 86 were on a ventilator.

Meanwhile, according to the ONS, in the seven days up to September 25 no-one with Covid lost their lives.

Yet as hospitalisations and deaths have been falling, the number of positive tests continues to increase.

In the first full week of October, there were 697 cases in Kent - already more than three quarters of the total tally last month.

With cases surges across the UK, a leading scientist today warned a second national lockdown is a possibility.

The Prime Minister is set to bring in a new three-tier coronavirus restrictions regime tomorrow.

Reports suggest the top tier will force pubs and restaurants to shut and see no household mixing allowed, which could affect millions of people living in areas with high Covid-19 rates.

While the infection rate in Kent is far lower than places like Nottingham and Liverpool, in some places it has more than doubled in recent days.

England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the country is at a tipping point similar to the first wave of coronavirus.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent