Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, Reuters

Air pollution levels have dropped by more than 35% in the capital as transport use has plummeted in the lockdown, data shows.

Preliminary analysis by experts at the University of York reveals levels of key pollutant nitrogen dioxide, which mostly comes from combustion engines in vehicles, have been significantly reduced in the past few weeks.

But there has not been the same impact on another form of toxic pollution, tiny particles known as PM2.5.

Experts say that is because the particles stay in the air longer, and are generated from more sources including agriculture and burning solid fuels which have continued during the lockdown.

But the fall in nitrogen dioxide gives a potential glimpse into the cities of the future where most transport will not be from diesel or petrol vehicles, which the government plans to phase out to tackle climate change and pollution.

According to the research, London has seen a drop of nitrogen dioxide levels by 36% compared with a five-year average for the same time of year in 2019.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Earlier today we wrote about the tragic death of London paramedic Ian Reynolds.

Image source, Google

For the last eight years Ian also worked as a member of the Crystal Palace Football Club pitch-side medical team with the club paying tribute to him as a "much-loved colleague" and friend.

Colleague Dr Amir Pakravan said: "As a person, he was the best friend you could wish for, always smiling, calm and easy-going and an avid Palace fan.

"As a colleague, he was extremely professional, reliable, approachable, highly experienced and knowledgeable, and always ready to help. He was the complete package and an absolute joy to work with."

He is survived by his wife and two sons, one of whom, Jack, also works as a member of the Selhurst Park stretcher crew.

Dr Pakravan said: "Our pitch-side medical team will not be the same without Ian.

"The thoughts of everyone at Crystal Palace FC are with his family and friends.

Mr Reynolds had worked at New Addington, where he also served as an active Unison rep, as well the principal liaison between the London Ambulance Service and all the Croydon care homes.

BBC London

Comic Relief and Children in Need are joining forces for the first time tonight to deliver a very special night of television during these unprecedented times called "The Big Night In".

Money raised by the appeal will be used to support local charities which coming under increasing pressure during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Someone who's benefited from Children in Need is nine-year-old Callum from Benfleet, who has cerebral palsy.

Over the years he's spent a lot of time in and out of King's College Hospital in London... where the money you've raised has gone to support fun activities to make his time away from home that extra bit special.

Well the last time we saw him was on Children in Need night in November... so we asked his mum to make a film for us to show how they're coping with life in lockdown.

Watch the Big Night In on BBC One from 19:00.

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, HCA

Speaking about the alliance between the NHS and the private sector during the coronavirus pandemic Dr Majid Kazmi said “everything was working brilliantly”.

Staff have been trained on new systems and the consultant haematologist spoke about the scale of which the private sector has become part of the NHS.

Dr Kazmi told BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz’ Breakfast Show: “We have always had a good relationship at Guy’s and St Thomas’ with the private partner HCA.

"Really in the last month that has been transformed to a whole new level where we have been able to take on their facilities.

"We have a standalone cancer site in the hospital which is a 14-storey building, the top four floors were private which included theatres, inpatient beds and its own ICU.

"What this allowed us to do was to treat patients, like cancer patients, but in a safe environment where we can control who goes in and out of the building.

"This has been an unprecedented development and now allowed us to deliver almost 80% of what we would normally be doing despite the coronavirus situation."

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

Image source, Colliers Launches

An historic family-owned passenger boat company says it is "struggling to keep heads above water" as finances dwindle during to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Colliers Launches, which transports tourists along the river Thames on vessels that took part in Dunkirk, has been forced to close due to the social distancing restrictions ahead of it usual peak business period.

Danny Collier told the BBC: "As a seasonal business funds are diminishing approaching the new season and this season didn’t get started.

"We are a family business so we are supporting each other in any way we can.

"All our staff have been put into the furlough scheme while we try to keep our heads above water.

"The Thames and the boats are the gel that holds our family together its part of our identity.

The company is attempting to crowd fund £25,000 to maintain licenses, tax and mooring rents.

Image source, Colliers Launches

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Private healthcare facilities - largely the preserve of the affluent prior to the coronavirus pandemic - have been made available to NHS patients in recent weeks. It has meant some cancer or cardiac patients considered at high risk if they contracted Covid-19 are now able to undergo critical surgery.

On the day the UK went into lockdown, 32-year-old Robert Rodrigues received the news that he had cancer.

"I was due to get married the week I found out I was diagnosed," he said.

The wedding and honeymoon were all put on hold - as large gatherings and foreign travel were restricted - and Mr Rodrigues tried to make sense of his diagnosis.

"I saw the coronavirus as a lesser evil compared to suffering from cancer and it spreading," he said.

"I tend not to be a worrier which is a good thing. The doctors were all so professional and pulling me through all the way.

"Their opinion was let's act quick and I kept telling myself that everything was in hand."

Because of the risk of spreading or catching coronavirus, Mr Rodrigues's diagnosis and all of his consultations were carried out remotely.

You can read more here about how the private sector has become part of the NHS.

The number of knife crimes rose by 5% in London, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday showed.

Image source, Met Police

It reflected the rise across England and Wales which were the highest on record last year, up 7% on the previous 12 months and since records began a decade ago.

Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument rose to 45,627 for the year to December.

The report said: "Knife or sharp instrument offences continue to be concentrated in metropolitan areas across England and Wales, with around a third (34%) of all offences recorded by the police in London."

The figures , external also show a 15% rise of homicides recorded by the Metropolitan Police in the last year - to 146 from 127.

Of all recorded homicides last year, 40% involved a knife or sharp instrument, a similar proportion to 2018, according to the data.

Diana Fawcett, chief executive of the charity Victim Support, said: "We are concerned that reports of knife crime and homicide have risen."

Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he would lead a new Cabinet committee looking at ways to tackle crime.

Crime in London may have gone up in the year to December but lockdown has brought some benefits after Camden and Islington police reveal a day with no robberies.

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

London hospitals have registered 89 new deaths linked to coronavirus, half the number reported yesterday.

There have now been 4,300 deaths linked to coronavirus in London according to figures from NHS England., external

Since the NHS began publishing daily figures on 2 April the number of new deaths not dropped below 130.

That was until Saturday. In the last five days the number of new reported deaths has been below 90 three times.

But the number of deaths continues to grow in London and the capital remains the worst affected area in the country.

Two London hospitals have now recorded more than 400 deaths. The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, which both have 402 recorded deaths linked to coronavirus.

Three other London hospitals have recorded more than 300 deaths:

• Kings Collge London NHS Foundation Trust with (339), and
• Barts Health NHS Trust (335)- the trust responsible for the new NHS Nightingale hospital
• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (306)

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, EPA

A national campaign to raise a government grant for retail and leisure firms is being led by the Croydon Business Improvement District (BID).

Companies with a rateable value of less than £51,000 will be eligible for the tax holiday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced last month.

The measure applied, and currently does, to firms including shops, cinemas, restaurants and hotels.

But Croydon BID CEO Matt Simms said there are many businesses in the borough - and across London- who have a rateable value of more than £51,000 and are therefore not eligible.

In a letter to the Business Secretary Alok Sharma, Mr Simms called on the government to raise the threshold of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant (RHLG) by nearly £100,000.

He wrote: "By raising the threshold to £150,000 rateable value, over 13,000 further businesses will be supported.

"We acknowledge that by increasing the RHLG threshold to £150,000 will increase the burden on central and local government, this is a price we believe is worth paying to ensure these businesses are supported to become part of the greater push to mobilse our economy.

"Rather than leaving premises empty, growing unemployment and leaving high street and town centre communities depleted."

The letter has been supported by London's Night Czar Amy Lame as well as CEO's of the UK Retail Industry and the British Beer & Pub Association.

Inside Croydon

Jonathan Clark, the Bishop of Croydon, has added his voice to calls for more, and more easily accessible, coronavirus testing centres for people living and working in Croydon.

Full story, external

A centre providing coronavirus tests for frontline health and care workers has opened in Enfield.

Image source, Google

The drive-through facility at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Edmonton is open to people working in the NHS or a care setting with symptoms of Covid-19.

It can also be used by people who live in the same household as these workers and have symptoms of the virus.

Testing is only available to people with a booked and confirmed appointment letter at the specified time.

Enfield Council’s leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan, who recently urged the government to ramp up testing after warning coronavirus cases in care homes were “rapidly increasing”.

Ms Caliskan said: “This is a helpful start, but we will not rest until all of our 5,500 frontline care sector workers in Enfield have been able to access tests as a matter of urgency.

This is an extract from an article by Professor Flasche , externalof the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

He reflects on the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on Isabella, his four-year-old daughter.

Image source, Stefan Flasche

"At four years old she has been missing her friends from day one of the lockdown and, unlike some teenagers, she does not communicate well digitally.

"Her social life is very much centered around close physical contact with her best friends.

"We are doing the best we can to keep her entertained at home and during the once-a-day outdoor exercise sessions, but extending our current “no contact beyond the household” lifestyle to include one or two of Isabella's closest friends would tremendously help her mental health and social development.

"Mitigating the spread of coronavirus, however, involves similar considerations. We all need to reduce our contacts as much as possible to help slow down the spread of the virus. The contacts that we cannot avoid are largely household based. If we keep our contacts largely within the household there is a limited risk that the virus enters or leaves the household.

"This principle could similarly apply to small size and fixed children’s play groups. The agreement of exclusivity in this is central to success, as it limits the risk for transmission chains. As a result, such social contact clustering for children would allow them to mingle with their friends while only adding a rather marginal risk for coronavirus infection from, or transmission to, those outside of the play group and their respective households.

"Going even further, there is potential for this household based clustering strategy to be applied to non-child households who are similarly struggling from a lack of direct social contacts as the lockdown restrictions begin to relax.

"This may include loneliness stricken single person households or the ability to visit family, but the same principle applies: exclusiveness is important for a sustained interruption of transmission chains.

"In the coming weeks the team of modellers at LSHTM will quantify the trade-off that these potential relaxations of the current lockdown would imply.

"As the UK government announces at least three more weeks of lockdown, and with little reason to believe that in three weeks time the coronavirus threat will have subsided, (play group) clustering could present a more sustainable way forward to keep families with young children and others sane and safe."

Stefan Flasche is an associate professor at the LSHTM, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology which is providing estimates for government on different COVID-19 mitigation, control and exit strategies.

Sarah Lee
BBC London

A clip of Joe Wicks in action and hair clippers could go on show at the Museum Of London - as it seeks to collect first-hand experiences of how coronavirus is changing society.

Curators want objects, together with first-person testimony, for future generations to be able to look back and understand this "extraordinary time".

The museum is collecting the items now, but stressed that any display would be far in the future.

Senior curator Beatrice Behlen said people should think about putting objects aside.

"Nothing is too humble," she said.

"The object doesn't have to look great or special, but we are interested in what it means.

"Often when people think of museums, they think that what they have is not museum standard, but we have ticket stubs from the Tube, all sorts of things."

In a previous exhibition on the potential threat caused by any future epidemic, the Museum Of London displayed the mourning outfit Queen Victoria wore after her grandson died with Russian flu.

Now it wants to reflect the emptiness of the city, how social lives have developed digitally and how young people are reacting since schools closed.

It is also on the look-out for "memes and tweets" which have been widely shared.

Hair clippers and hair dye - as people cut and style their hair at home - rainbow drawings and popular items such as toilet paper could go on display.

Fitness coach Joe Wicks's online exercise classes have also proven extremely popular during lockdown conditions.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Today is Shakespeare's birthday... and if you're missing out on attending one of the Bard's plays due to the lockdown, worry thee not.

Image source, Geograph/Des Blenkinssop

The Globe Theatre in London is streaming , externalperformances from its back catalogue during the pandemic restrictions, for free.

Other London theatres are also putting shows online, including the Southbank's National Theatre which this week is featuring Twelfth Night, , externalagain for free, starring Tamsin Greig.

So get dressed up, order your interval drinks, and take a prime seat...in your living room!

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, EPA

Cancer patients being referred to Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital have fallen by around 84 in the last few weeks in the middle of the coronavirus outbreak, a senior consultant has said.

Dr Majid Kazmi, a consultant haematologist, who is also the Chief of Cancer Services and is the Deputy Medical Director and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, said the hospital has had to adapt very quickly to deal with non-coronavirus patients.

"It is really important that the NHS is still open for business," Dr Kazmi told BBC Radio London's Vanessa Feltz.

"One of my concerns is that the number of referrals coming through urgent cancer pathway has dropped significantly in the last month.

"We normally get 2,500 referrals a month but the first three weeks of April we only had 400."

Dr Kazmi believes it is down to a mixture of patients feeling like they don’t want to be a burden on the NHS or are scared to go to the GP with symptoms they would normally check out.

He added: “Definitely patients are more anxious about getting in contact with the healthcare services but we would encourage them to do so if they have any symptoms they are worried about, we are here."

This neighbour went to extraordinary lengths to visit his elderly friend next door...Mike hired a cherry picker to see Tessa at her care home in Hammersmith during lockdown.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A 33-year-old woman died alone at home with suspected Covid-19 after not wanting to “burden” doctors with her symptoms, her friends and family said today.

Tributes have been paid to “happy and kind” Sara Santos who died on Saturday.

She called an ambulance to her home in Croydon at about 17:30 when she started struggling to breathe.

But paramedics did not arrive for almost two hours and could not revive her.

The media analyst, who was originally from Portugal, was suffering from fevers and other coronavirus symptoms for weeks, her friends said, but she had not wanted to visit a hospital.

Her sister Diana, 26, an insurance worker in Manchester said Ms Santos’s health had deteriorated before this following a kidney infection three weeks earlier and a diagnosis of gall stones.

She added: “She told us she didn’t want to be a burden at a time of pandemic.

"She was a ray of light. She was the warmest, funniest person. Her death has left a huge hole on our lives.”

Ms Santos moved to London from Portugal in 2013 to take up a job at the British Museum before becoming a media analyst.

An online fundraising page to help pay for Ms Santos’ funeral has already raised more than £7,000.

Her family also want a private post-mortem to clarify whether she died from Covid-19 or another, unknown, health condition.

Ms Greco added: “It’s a heart breaking time for everyone who knew Sara. We are trying to make sure she gets the goodbye she really deserves.”

Ms McGee said she was "shocked" to be named by the PM, who "needed" to be in intensive care.

Private hospitals have opened their wards to NHS patients allowing them to undergo critical surgery.