Warwick Avenue comes alive at 11am every day with residents dancing on their drives.

The hospital in Norwich is being divided between suspected coronavirus and non-coronavirus areas.

Katy Lewis
BBC News Online

Staff at City College, external in Peterborough are rustling up hot dishes and delivering them to vulnerable residents and homeless people.

A team at the college’s Brook Street campus have used their catering facilities to cook meals including beef stew, Quorn shepherd’s pie and fish & chips while social-distancing.

Image source, City College Peterborough

Executive principal, Pat Carrington, said: "I’m really proud of the team - they’ve been fantastic and become a really well-oiled machine.

"They’re now in their second week of making hot meals - on their first day they made 20 but now they’ve got into a real rhythm and are making and delivering around 150 hot meals and 70 sandwich lunches a day - it's an incredible effort."

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

A hospice in Cambridgeshire has started an urgent fundraising appeal after forecasts have shown it could lose £700,000 over the next six months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Image source, Arthur Rank Hospice Charity

Arthur Rank Hospice has a site in Cambridge, a day centre in Wisbech and also cares for people in their own homes - helping more than 4,000 people a year in the county with a life-limiting illness.

It said while the crisis had already been tough for staff who were now unable to "offer a comforting hug or a hand to hold... at moments of heart-breaking loss", it had also had a "devastating impact" on fundraising.

It has prompted the charity to issue its SOS! Support our Services appeal, external.

Sharon Allen, chief executive of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, said: "Never would we have anticipated something like Covid-19 and how this would affect us all in the way it has."

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

Charities in Northamptonshire have come together to issue an appeal to help feed some of the county’s most vulnerable people.

The Northamptonshire Emergency Food Alliance , externalwill help those who have been badly affected by the coronavirus crisis.

It wants to provide 1,000 freshly-cooked meals a day for at least the next three months and hopes to raise £84,000.

The partnership has brought together Northampton Hope Centre, the Daylight Centre Fellowship, East Northants Community Services and Accommodation Concern.

"We need help now so that we can ensure our isolated, elderly and those at risk don't become ill due to hunger or, worse still, a further victim of this terrible disease," said Rachel Mallows, from the Daylight Centre Fellowship.

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

Drivers will not be able to park their cars at a nature reserve in Hertfordshire this week while the county council deals with the coronavirus outbreak.

Image source, Robin Webster/Geograph

Broxbourne Woods nature reserve car parks will be closed, although Broxbourne and Bencroft Woods will still be open to visitors arriving by bicycle, foot and horse.

Hertfordshire County Council, external said it had decided to temporarily shut the sites to cars so staff could "focus on more critical services".

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

Essex County Cricket Club, external players have been swapping the field for the kitchen, making more than 1,000 hot meals for frontline NHS staff and vulnerable people.

Image source, Essex County Cricket Club

Spinner Simon Harmer and some of his team-mates including captain Tom Westley (pictured) have been helping at the Supporting Humanity charity preparing meals for workers at 13 hospitals across Essex and London, as well as for people in need.

The 2019 County Championship winners will not return to playing until at least the end of May.

Mr Harmer said: "It's been described as a war and the NHS staff are on the frontlines... they are putting in a lot of hours - while the rest of us are in isolation and in lockdown at home - making sure the public gets the healthcare they need."

Sarah Jenkins
BBC News

Milton Keynes University Hospital has received 40 mobile phones to help patients keep in touch with their relatives.

Staff will be using an app called Nye which allows them to video-call family members.

Jamie Strachan, a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia, tweeted a step-by-step demonstration , externalon using the app.

He said the technology had been useful as "normally we would meet families every day to update them, we have open visiting and (within reason) they could be here all the time. We get to know them and they us.

"But because of the coronavirus pandemic that’s all off. We can ring them and they can ring us but we are busy and aren’t always by the phone."

The app is a one-way calling device which means only hospital staff can contact relatives when they are available.

A costuming business owner says it has helped "lift the spirits" in her village.

Katy Lewis
BBC News Online

The Helping Whittlesey Facebook group will be testing out a cooked meal delivery service next week.

On 15 April, chef Colin Wilson, from the Falcon Hotel, is cooking cottage pie which volunteers will deliver to vulnerable people in and around the town near Peterborough.

If you know somebody who would benefit, please contact the group using the number on the Facebook, external page.

Image source, Helping Whittlesey

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

A police chief has appealed for people to stay in over the Easter bank holiday to "save lives" after his force received 300 calls last weekend.

Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey said: "I really hope that those people who chose to flout the guidelines and ignore the advice last weekend will reflect on the number of [Covid-19] cases we have in the county."

Katy Lewis
BBC News Online

Image source, Tracey Peters

If you're finding your daily exercise walk a bit "samey" then here's an idea from two villages in Essex.

For the Kelvedon and Feering "safari", more than 80 houses have put cuddly toys and models of different animals in and outside their houses for children to spot.

Villager Tracey Peters said: "We as a community have really pulled together in these testing times and one of the ways we have done that is to share ways of keeping our children in contact and smiling from a distance."

Image source, Tracey Peters

Image source, Tracey Peters

Image source, Tracey Peters

Here's how the newspapers in Cambridgeshire have been covering the coronavirus pandemic today:

• The Cambridge News, external reports that a council has scrapped car parking penalties during the coronavirus outbreak
• A Peterborough postie is delivering smiles on her daily rounds, the Peterborough Telegraph, external reports

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Ben Hatton

Image source, PA Media

Addenbrooke’s Hospital has had debts of £340m written off - to help it deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, South Cambridgeshire's MP said.

Anthony Browne (Conservative) said the hospital "can now fully focus on fighting coronavirus and delivering first class healthcare".

The government announced on 2 April, external that it would remove the historic debt of more than 100 hospitals across the UK - a total of £13.4bn.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said: "As we tackle this crisis, nobody in our health service should be distracted by their hospital’s past finances."

The precise details of the Addenbrooke’s debt write-off are yet to be confirmed.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital has been approached by the LDRS for comment.

Tom Moore wants to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday to raise money.

Here's how the newspapers in Beds, Herts and Bucks are reporting the coronavirus pandemic today:

• The Bucks Herald, external reports that the Chiltern Society has written to the government calling for a halt to HS2 works during the pandemic
• It also reports tha, externalt beekeepers are still collecting honeybee swarms during the crisis
• Temporary NHS staff are needed in Luton and Bedfordshire, the Luton News, external reports
• The Comet, external reports that a Hertfordshire family support charity's emergency appeal has raised £26k.

Katy Lewis
BBC News Online

A GP surgery has announced it is taking the unusual step of remaining open on Good Friday and Easter Monday to "relieve the pressures on other NHS services".

The Parkwood Surgery, external in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, has notified its patients it will be open for normal hours on both days.

Image source, Google

Here's now the newspapers in Northamptonshire are covering the coronavirus pandemic today:

• The Northamptonshire Telegraph, external reports that postal workers have paid tribute to popular union official, who is believed to have died after contracting Covid-19
• A retired couple from Northampton have shared with the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, external how they are coping during the coronavirus pandemic while stuck in the United States

Richard Westcott
BBC Science and Tech Correspondent

A scientist is co-ordinating a network of independent laboratories across the UK who want to help support the NHS with coronavirus testing.

Chief executive of Cambridge Clinical Laboratories, external, Dr Anthony Cooke, said his team was testing HIV and cancer samples, but with financial support they could easily use the same equipment to test for coronavirus - and other places are ready to do the same.

He said of the government target of doing 100,000 tests a day that "absolutely it can be done" if there was co-ordination to bring the labs together, get the chemicals needed and provide funding.

"We have the capability of virtually matching what Germany have done. We can bring in... up to possibly 100 extra labs into this process to do the testing," he said.

However, ramping up testing would cost his lab, in Milton, £30,000 a day, money he said they simply don't have and they have struggled to get a bank loan.

"They really need to understand that this is not a normal situation, we are not looking at businesses that are trying to make huge profit out of this," he said.

"If anything we'll make a loss, because we're trying to do it in a benevolent way and the banks need to get on board with that."

Zoe Applegate
BBC News

A nine-year-old boy filmed a heartwarming video of himself dancing with doctors and nurses as he underwent treatment at an Essex hospital.

Finley Ranson, of Battlesbridge, has to attend Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford twice a week for fat infusions that take up to eight hours a time.

Finley, who has a rare fat intolerance, can be seen dancing with the Phoenix Ward team to S Club 7's Reach for the Stars and The Police's Don't Stand So Close To Me.

He and his family hope to raise money for the hospital with the Facebook video, which also includes a message from Finley asking people to "stay at home everybody and help the NHS".