Free Covid-19 testing is no longer available, but there are still hundreds of people suffering from the virus in hospital wards around the North East.
It's no longer possible to get a Covid-19 test delivered or to go to a walk-in testing centre - but over March the number of patients in hospitals around the region more than doubled. In the last week, hospital leaders have explained that around half of Covid-19 positive patients on their wards are there with the virus as their "primary" problem. The other half are "incidental" meaning that another condition is the reason for their hospital stay but the have tested positive.
On Thursday, Dame Dame Jackie Daniel, chief exec of the Newcastle Hospitals Trust which runs sites including the Freeman and the RVI, told a board meeting : "It does feel that we are still in the midst of Covid." The latest Government figures show that patient numbers have rocketed over the month - with Gateshead's Queen Elizabeth hospital (QE) in particular seeing positive patients close to quadruple.
