More than 70 patients in Suffolk hospitals, including those used primarily by people in Hadleigh and nearby villages, are being treated for Covid-19, according to latest figures.

Data presented to today's Local Outbreak Engagement Board meeting indicated that there were 32 positive patients at Ipswich Hospital, of which three were in intensive therapy units (ITU), while West Suffolk Hospital had 39 patients, also with three of those in ITU.

In addition, the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston which treats north Suffolk patients as well as those in Norfolk has reported 23 Covid cases including five in critical care.

Dr Ed Garratt, chief officer at Suffolk's clinical commissioning groups said: "Proportionally Ipswich is a bigger site, a bigger hospital and a bigger catchment, so West Suffolk is under slightly greater pressure."

Chiefs are collating data on how many of those patients have received Covid-19 vaccinations or booster jabs, although Public Health Suffolk director Stuart Keeble said that 'at a national level people that often end up in ITU are people who often haven't been vaccinated'.

Dr Garratt said that it was not usually a case of someone being admitted to hospital because of Covid-19, but 'more often than not someone has been admitted for a different illness but also got Covid, or worse still picked up Covid within the hospital. It is more the balance of that rather than being in the hospital bed because of Covid'.

Health chiefs have said that despite being early on in the winter season it 'feels much more like January' – traditionally the toughest month for pressure on health services.

Last month the county's hospitals closed their doors to visitors in a bid to curb the spread of infection and keep patients safe, after evidence was found that visitors had been responsible for some Covid-19 transmission in the hospitals.

Friday's meeting also heard that the sickness rate in Suffolk for health staff was around 4%, which was below the 4.5% regional average.

People have been urged to get their Covid-19 vaccine to help curb the effects of the virus, and reduce the chance of severe health impacts as a result.

Meanwhile, More than 60% of eligible people in Suffolk have had a Covid-19 booster jab according to latest data – but 90,000 eligible people are still yet to have the top-up.

Health chiefs for Suffolk and North East Essex – which excludes the Waveney area of the county – told Friday's Local Outbreak Engagement Board meeting they had ramped up efforts over the last week with a "significant increase" in performance to deliver 34,000 jabs, 31,000 of which were boosters.

That compares to the 21,000 delivered weekly a month ago.

It means that Suffolk and North East Essex has vaccinated 19.22% of the total population with boosters – the highest in the region – while Norfolk and Waveney in second has jabbed 18.35% with boosters.

Elizabeth Moloney, deputy director of strategic change at Suffok's clinical commissioning group has been leading the vaccination programme, and said: "We have vaccinated 61.1% of that [eligible] population, so 141,000 patients across Suffolk have received their booster vaccination, which whilst we are proud of that we are not complacent because we do have 90,000 patients currently eligible and they have not been vaccinated.

"That is our absolute priority to ensure that those people are very clear about their eligibility and how they can access the vaccine, and that is absolutely what we continue to focus on."

To jab 100% of the population by the New Year, the team needs to deliver around 27,000 a week.

Vaccination sites currently include three vaccination centres, two hospital hubs, 28 community pharmacies and 19 primary care network settings, but health chiefs said they were still working to up the numbers of pharmacies involved.

Further changes have been made with the booking system too.

"In line with patient feedback and cognisant of the winter months that we are now approaching, we have shifted our operating model to offer more booked appointments," Elizabeth Moloney said.

"That is something we have responded to in terms of patient feedback, however to maximise the capacity we have we are constantly looking at our vaccination centres in particular, and where we do have unused appointments we make those available the evening before at 5pm, and then we promote those through social media and other communication mechanisms."