North East NHS bosses have reminded the public that Plan B rules ending doesn't mean masks and social distancing don't remain essential to preventing the dominant Omicron Covid-19 variant from spreading in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
More than 1,000 people still have Covid-19 in hospitals around the North East and North Cumbria region - and top medics have spoken of how important it still is to follow precautions on wards, in pharmacies, GPs' practices, clinics and on patient transport.
Staff absence remains high too, though top medics think the impact of Omicron may have peaked. NHS figures explained around 9% of the health service's workforce was off sick on January 20 - and that half of that was made up of Covid-19 related absence.
