Covid patient numbers continue to drop

As of Wednesday, the hospital was treating 58 inpatients — down 12 from the previous week — eight of whom were in critical care.

Sixteen patients who tested positive for the virus died within the last week, taking the total number of deaths to 569.

The hospital has so far discharged 1,673 patients and treated 2,382 overall since the start of the pandemic.

The vaccination programme in the borough is continuing to progress well.

Ian Atkinson, executive place director for the Rotherham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said he was confident over 75,000 people will have received their first dose of the vaccine by the end of the week.