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.
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There are 1,039 Covid-positive patients in hospitals across the region. On January 11 the figure was 1,044. There are 27 confirmed patients in intensive care beds.
Dr Neil Halford interim medical director of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) said it continued to be a "busy and challenging time" and added: "While it looks like things are heading in the right direction we remain cautious.
"The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 in the region remains broadly the same as it was this time last week, and is still higher than we would like.
"We have started to see a small decline in the number of staff absences which is encouraging, as well as seeing infection rates in the community also falling.
"While Plan B restrictions are being lifted, infection control measures across healthcare settings will remain in place. We would like to thank the public for their support and ask that they continue to wear a mask and wash their hands when visiting any healthcare setting."
On Wednesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid claimed "Omicron is in retreat" as the Government announced an end to mask-wearing in schools and plans to end Plan B 's rules - including the work-from-home guidance and mandatory face-mask wearing.
He said it was vital people continued to obey visiting restrictions to keep staff and patients in hospitals safe, too.
This comes a day after Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust assistant chief exec Caroline Docking explained the Freeman and the RVI had seen the number of Covid-positive patients drop from around 150 to 135 - and that staff absence had dropped dramatically too compared to earlier in the month.
She told a meeting of the Newcastle City Council City Futures Board : "We've seen, we think, that we have peaked last week. We were seeing around about 150 patients with Covid in our wards.
"This week that's more like 135 and looks to be heading in the right direction. That's really positive. And again although we've seen an increase overall, the numbers of people who are very unwell needing intensive care stayed around about the same - each week we've had around about 10 people or less, a really positive picture."
The NHS exec added that consistently "around half" of the Covid-19 patients had been admitted to hospital for a reason other than Covid.
Ms Docking added that while the widely-publicised high-levels of staff sickness due to Omicron had hit hard - "that's improving as well".
Both NHS figures highlighted that vaccination remains the best weapon against the spread of Covid-19 - while Dr Halford reminded members of the public that everyone can play their part in protecting the NHS by "using services sensibly" and "thinking pharmacy, GP and 111 online first".
Dr Halford said 999 and A&E should only be resorted to in life-threatening circumstances.
