A 40-year-old man is in a critical condition in hospital and police are not looking for anyone else.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

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Armies of volunteers have been stitching new sets of scrubs and donating them to NHS staff because of a supply shortage in hospitals.

Dozens of ‘"scrub hubs" have sprouted across the country, each with cutters and sewers all working from home to transform acres of green, red and blue material into uniforms.

The hubs started forming in early April, as it emerged that hospitals were facing a shortage of scrubs, brought on by efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Salvador Avila, 30, has been coordinating one scrub hub from his home in Highbury, north London.

“We’ve had orders from more than 200 doctors and other NHS workers who have got in touch individually,” said Mr Avila, usually a theatre technician for productions including Secret Cinema and Be More Chill.

“Our hub has already made over 400 scrubs, and in different sizes for men and women.”

The North London Scrub Hub was founded by Sarah Pearce, 33, who previously produced costumes for the cast of Downton Abbey.

Based in Kentish Town, she said: “It started when I offered to make some just for my local GP surgery. Then they ordered 60 sets.”

Their hub has grown into a team of 50 regular volunteers, including just one cutter, Russell Philip Peek, who owns textiles business Offcut Studios.

“Russell does all of the cutting with an electric rotary cutter that allows him to do enough for 50 scrubs in a day,” said Ms Pearce.

“Then we send out batches of the cut material out to our sewers.“The idea is that the person who sews the scrubs then delivers them to whoever made the order, so we allocate everything by location.”

Mr Savila explained how the pandemic has caused higher demand for scrubs.

“We have heard that there was suddenly more demand for scrubs because an order was made that all hospital staff, including admin staff, needed to start wearing them.

“It’s so that staff can take them off at the end of their shift, leave them at work, and not wear them home or on public transport and risk carrying the infection.”

Ms Pearce and Mr Savila have been bombarded with offers from volunteers.

The man in his 20s was found badly injured in east London and died later in hospital.

BBC Breakfast

A Health Minister has warned that he expects the number of people to die in care homes and hospices to rise when the figures are released tomorrow.

Currently, the NHS has been publishing daily data of patients who have died in hospitals from coronavirus - but this does not include deaths outside of hospitals.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast about deaths in care homes, Edward Argar said people want more up to date figures, but they need to be accurate.

He said: "Regrettably I would expect to see an increase in the numbers who have died" when the next stats are published tomorrow by the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Agar also said he understood people's frustration with lockdown measures, but he said the government was "not in a place where the science says we can ease them".

MPs call for a government strategy to cope with the "surge" in violence during lockdown and after.

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, Google

The number of patients known to have died from coronavirus in London hospitals has reached 4,542, according to NHS data.

Sixteen NHS Trusts across the capital have recorded more than 100 deaths linked to Covid-19.

The Royal Free NHS Trust - which runs Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals - has the highest rate in London (425) just two ahead of the London North West University NHS Trust which runs Northwick Park, Central Middlesex, St Mark's and Ealing hospitals.

Figures recorded by the NHS do not include coronavirus-related deaths outside hospitals, that data will be released by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday.

Across the UK a total of 20,732 people have died in hospitals from Covid-19 meaning London makes up just under 22% of all deaths linked to coronavirus.

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

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Scientists at King's College London have opened up a new diagnostics lab to help the NHS process the many thousands of swab tests needed to help bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.

It is one of several new sites springing up to help health officials meet their target of testing 100,000 people a day and relieve pressure on the NHS.

Hundreds of volunteers affiliated to the university including PhD students, research assistants and post-doctoral students signed up "almost instantly", those leading the lab said.

The lab is also using a heat process to inactivate the samples before they are opened without compromising the test results meaning the team will not be put at risk of infection if they face shortages of personal protective equipment.

Dr Michael Malim, head of the School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences at King's College London, said the lab was working to build "resilience and flexibility" into the testing process.

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, Getty Images

Ealing has become the latest borough to see confirmed cases of coronavirus reach 1,000.

According to the latest data published by Public Health England - which analyses positive Covid-19 infections in local authority areas.

In London there are currently 23,608 confirmed cases of coronavirus with Brent and Croydon having the joint highest out of all the London boroughs with 1,130 cases.

Those two boroughs are followed by Barnet (1,155), Southwark (1,150), Lambeth (1,101) and now Ealing (1,005) in quadruple figures.

Brent, Southwark and Harrow have the highest rates per capita while Richmond-upon-Thames remains the London borough with the fewest amount of cases (353).

BBC London

Good morning and welcome to this week's BBC London live page on how the coronaviorus pandemic is affecting you plus other big stories.

We'll be bringing you the latest news, advice and information plus stories of what other Londoners are getting up to during the lockdown.