Are hospitals REALLY creaking under the strain of Covid before Christmas? NHS data shows trusts are STILL quieter than last December - with seven times fewer wards close to being full
Average intensive care ward occupancy down to 75 per cent from 84 per cent from the same time last year
15,465 people in hospital with Covid in England on Wednesday compared to 18,974 on worst day in spring
But statistics suggest the health service is, overall, coping better with its workload than it did last winter