A turning on of Christmas lights, that normally attracts 6,000 people, has already been cancelled.

Image source, Ian Newstead

A switch-on event was due to take place on 27 November in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Ian Newstead, the event manager, said the city will still have lights, if they can be put up safely and following guidelines, but a special event will not be held.

"We are going to do an alternative online switch-on event, for those those that can't get out," he said.

"We will find a way."

Alex Pope
BBC News Online

Image source, JezO's

For the fifth week in a row, amazing blue lights have been projected onto well-known buildings in Cambridge.

Several events companies, calling themselves the Shine Bright Team, external, have used their skills to honour NHS and key workers.

They are The Crane Event, JMPS, Pink Lamp, Blueshed and JezO's.

Image source, Pink Lamp

On Thursday evening for the Clap for Carers event, Gonville and Caius, Westminter College, and a sculpture outside the Department of Engineering, all turned blue.

Image source, Sharon King-Livesey

Justin Crane, from Crane Event, said it was approached by Sharon King-Livesey, to illuminate the "Construction in Aluminium" artwork.

"Built by my Dad, Design Engineer Clive King in 1967, and a team at Cambridge University Engineering labs, Kenneth Martin’s sculpture design is synonymous with the innovation happening in Cambridge and beyond, in the fight to save lives," she said.

The companies have promised more will be lit up next week.

Alex Pope
BBC News Online

Image source, David Lowndes

Children putting their drawings of rainbows in their windows has become part of coronavirus lockdown culture.

And on Thursday evening, just a clap for carers was taking place, real double rainbows were seen above the skies in the East.

David Lowndes, a photographer for the Peterborough Telegraph, external, captured this amazing double rainbow above Peterborough Hospital (above).

‪In Mildenhall, Suffolk Police, external, said: "We're not the treasure at the end of the rainbow - that will be the time we can all hold our friends and family once again."

Image source, Suffolk Police

And in Basildon, Essex police officers took a photo of this double rainbow...

Image source, Essex Police

New doctors have volunteered to work at Peterborough City Hospital to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many of the junior doctors have graduated three months early from their medical schools.

As they were not able to sit exams, their work was accessed and if they found to have a passing standard, they were able to graduate after their work was accessed.

Dr Kanchan Rege, medical director at the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said: "These are doctors that have gone through all but their very last bit of training. They are above the standard required to become a doctor.-

Image source, Getty Images

A beer festival that welcomes between 8,000 and 10,000 people has been called off.

The Peterborough Beer Festival, external, due to take place from 28 and 31 August on the city's Embankment, will now move to 24 to 28 August 2021.

Mike Lane, from the Campaign for Real Ale, said: "Local landlords and local brewers are suffering beyond belief, so if we are not able to do the festival then we would like to do something to help out."

He said organisers were looking to see if they could put on an ale trail, when the festival would have been on, to help local businesses, but only if lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Image source, Stephen McKay/Geograph

A display of rainbow pictures, presented to Royal Papworth Hospital, by Cambridgeshire Police, now has pride of place by the hospital's main exit.

They were handed over last week for the Thursday Clap for Carers event.

Staff thought the pictures, drawn by schoolchildren across Cambridgeshire were so good, they needed to be in a very prominent spot.

Image source, Royal Papworth Hospital

Broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles leads tributes to his "lovely" sister-in-law, Louise Coles.

Former Reading, Stoke and Portsmouth striker Dave Kitson says he is "ready, willing and able to lead" the Professional Footballers' Association.

Ex-Wales winger Simon Davies has gone back to his Peterborough United roots to win his coaching spurs.

Peterborough's homecare team is appealing for volunteers.

The City Council says its service is under "extreme strain" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

People interested in offering help can find out more here., external

Steven Clegg was arrested following reports he was causing a nuisance in a shop.

• Cambridgeshire Live reports, external that a "large" group of people were seen flouting lockdown guidelines by sunbathing, having a barbecue and swimming at a lake
• The Wisbech Standard, external has spoken to a KFC worker who has had "NHS" with a heart shaved into her head, raising £300 for hospital workers
• And Peterborough Today, external reported on the city's beer festival being called off amid the pandemic

The university's end-of-term balls have been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A woman is in custody on suspicion of attempting to murder the boy and girl.

League Two club Cambridge United are to release Paul Lewis and eight more players when their contracts expire in June.

More than 100 NHS staff and health workers in the UK have now died with coronavirus, it has been confirmed.

As the nation fell silent at 11:00 to remember those who have passed away, here we remember and pay tribute to 14 from the East of England whose deaths have been reported to the media.

NHS staff and other key workers stopped to remember colleagues who have died battling coronavirus.

Image source, Ely Cathedral

Staff and volunteers at Ely Cathedral are the latest to pledge support to the 2.6 Challenge, external.

It aims to raise money for charity during the lockdown, and was launched on Sunday when the 26-mile London Marathon should have been held.

Fundraisers can invent their own activity based around the numbers 2.6 or 26.

Edmund Aldhouse, director of music at the cathedral, took on the challenge of playing 26 scales on his home keyboard in 26 minutes - including all the major and minor scales, plus two additional ones.

He said any money raised money would go to the Ely Cathedral Trust, external and to the central national pot run by the 2.6 Challenge, external organisers.

Scientists are researching how coronavirus tests can be sped up.

Stephen Bustin, from Cambridgeshire and Essex-based Anglia Ruskin University, external, is hoping the 90 minute test can be reduced to 20 and then eventually to five minutes.

The professor of molecular medicine said the testing "helps us understand the disease itself because until now we have very little idea of how long the virus persists and how the body fights back".

"Testing is essential to not just identifying patients at risk or those who have recovered from the virus, but also helps us find out how biology devises itself," he added.

Image source, Getty Images

The siblings have been working on adapting a portable flu testing kit to check for Covid-19.