With just a day before the vast majority of Covid-19 testing stops, the data makes worrying reading in the North East with cases still rising in every area.
Case rates in each North East local authority remain on the up, and there are still substantial numbers of patients in the region's hospitals with Covid-19 diagnoses. However, few patients are on ventilators, and around the UK as a whole the spike in Covid-19 cases caused by the spread of the BA.2 Omicron subvariant may have peaked - for the first time in weeks the case rate for the country as a whole fell on March 24.
But top medics around the region are still deeply concerned by the threat Omicron poses, and it's still leading to many NHS staff being forced to miss work - upping the pressure on an already-stretched health service. This comes after the Government revealed more detail about its plan to "Live with Covid" on Tuesday evening - with only a small number of groups still able to access free Covid testing from April 1.
