THE number of people in St Mary's Hospital with Covid-19 has nearly halved in a week.

Latest government data shows there were 26 patients in the Newport hospital on February 16, compared to 48 a week before.

Where there were four patients on ventilators — that number is now two.

In the last week, there have been 25 additional Covid patients, taking the cumulative total since the pandemic began, from 650 a week ago, to 675.

Another 13 cases have been confirmed on the Isle of Wight today (Thursday), a slight reduction on the 17 recorded yesterday. There were three on Tuesday and eight on Monday.

The new cases take the county's total to 6,587 since the start of the pandemic, with February now recording 369 of those.

The rolling data of cases per 100,000 of population for the Island, though five days behind, is now at 104.4, which is below the UK average of 131.8.