THE number of hospital beds taken up by Covid-19 patients is expected to increase in the coming days, health chiefs warned this week.

As of last night (Thursday) at least 10 beds were occupied by coronavirus patients at the Whittington. Two were in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), and one patient died on Monday.

Whittington chief executive, Siobhan Harrington, said the figures were “relatively low” compared to the first wave of the virus, as she spoke at a meeting of the council’s health and wellbeing board on Wednesday.

“We are anticipating over the next two weeks the numbers will increase and we have planned to have an increase in numbers over the next couple of weeks,” she added. “There has unfortunately been a small number of Covid deaths in the last few weeks as well.”

There are 197 beds at the Whittington which could be made available for Covid patients but at the moment the hospital has earmarked 49 for those who test positive.

Latest figures show a seven-day average of around 46 positive Covid tests in Islington.