The number of hospital patients with Covid-19 in England has dropped to its lowest level since the start of the year.

A total of 22,067 patients with coronavirus were in hospital as of 8am on February 9, according to the latest figures from NHS England.

This is the lowest number since December 29, and is down 36% from a record 34,336 patients on January 18.

It is still well above the 13,212 patients that were in hospital on the day England came out of its second lockdown on December 2, however.

During the first wave of the virus, patient numbers in England peaked at 18,974 on April 12 2020.

Three of the seven NHS regions in England are also at pre-New Year levels.

London reported 4,574 patients on February 9, the lowest since December 26, while south-east England had 3,018 patients, the lowest since December 25.

Eastern England had 2,591 patients, the lowest since December 28.

The other four regions are currently reporting patient levels close to those seen in early January.

A total of 1,675 hospital admissions of people with Covid-19 in England were reported for February 7, NHS England also said.

This is down 59% from a peak of 4,134 admissions on January 12, and is the lowest number since December 18.

The figures for admissions cover all patients admitted in the previous 24 hours who were known to have Covid-19, plus any patients diagnosed in hospital with Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours.