The director of Public Health Hertfordshire has responded to those seeking to undermine the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the number of coronavirus hospitalisations in the county reached a new high.

Jim McManus, Herts County Council's Public Health chief and the vice president of the association of Directors of Public Health UK, shared an impassioned thread on Twitter, as the number of people with COVID-19 occupying East and North Herts NHS Trust hospital beds reached the highest point since records began.

Per the latest Government data, the number of people with coronavirus occupying hospital beds in Stevenage's Lister Hospital stood at 80 on Wednesday, December 23 - the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

The previous high at the hospital was on April 13, when there were 73 patients with COVID-19 occupying bed at the Stevenage hospital.

On December 23, the latest available data, the number of patients on mechanical ventilators stood at seven.

Although East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust oversees four hospitals - Lister, New QEII, Hertford and Mount Vernon - those patients with coronavirus are exclusively seen at Lister.

In Stevenage, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the seven days up to December 24 was 543, marking a total rate of 523.6 per 100,000. That's an increase of 124 cases compared to the previous week.

In total, more than 2,200 people have now tested positive for COVID-19 in the town.

For North Herts, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus up until Christmas Eve was 510, a rate of 351.5 per 100,000. In total, 2,692 people have now tested positive for COVID-19 in North Hertfordshire.

On Twitter, Mr McManus explained that with both COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations on the rise, it was important for everyone to "play their part."

Mr McManus also challenged the "junk science" that has been circulating on social media since March.

He said: "If we assume - wrongly - that young people don't get very ill and even if only one per cent of people needed hospitalisation, and even if all of them were over 45, that would be 9,170 beds needed in Hertfordshire for a system which has 1,200."

Mr McManus added: "If we want to exit COVID, the choice is simple. The less the virus circulates, the more the system copes.

"The quicker and more safely non-COVID patients will be seen, the faster the vaccine reaches everyone. What each of us does now and says impact - for better or worse - on others.

"We have a choice. When outside your household, treat everyone as if they may be infected and behave as if you may be too.

"If we keep believing junk science - that COVID only affects vulnerable and elderly and what we do as individuals doesn't matter, then watch the situation get worse not better.

"Deciding not to play our part rebounds on us. The more the virus circulates, the longer we have restrictions we don't want. Playing our part helps others and helps us too."