Alex Pope
BBC News

We are all finding new ways to work at the moment, and that includes staff working within the NHS.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust is using a new video system so appointments can be made online.

I am a little jealous as Claire's headset looks better than mine.

Shaving products have been donated to a team of volunteer clinicians working for the Magpas Air Ambulance. , external

The team needed a close shave every eight hours, to make sure their surgical masks were "airtight", it said.

Image source, Norfolk Libraries and Information Service

A nursery rhyme singalong by staff at a Norfolk library has proved an online hit with parents and children around the UK.

A rousing performance of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; Five Little Monkeys; Wind the Bobbin Up and other pre-school favourites was broadcast on Facebook on Tuesday morning. The video has since racked up more than 20,000 views online.

Librarians Adam and Hannah, who host weekly singalongs at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, said: "We know you can't come to us, so we're bringing our Bounce and Rhyme to you."

A mum from Surrey commented: "Thank you for making us giggle and providing some happiness during this crazy time."

"Loving this from Somerset," said another. Others tuned in from Wales and Scotland.

The library is also providing a daily storytime online and a weekly Lego club.

Margaret Dewsbury, cabinet member for communities at Norfolk County Council, said: “We’ve even had viewers logging on from other parts of the country and the response so far has been wonderful, showing just how brilliant and well-loved these activities are.”

Vacant halls of residence are given over to patients without coronavirus and on-call workers.

Orla Moore
BBC News

Bedfordshire firefighters have taken their fire safety message online for primary school children.

The video was created by Kempston White Watch to reach out to isolated families and engage with young children during the lockdown.

The 10-minute lesson includes describing what firefighters do and wear - and what to do if there's a fire in the home.

Firefighter Tom Field said: "Whilst we cannot physically attend our usual school fire safety visits, we really want to continue to engage with our communities.

"Therefore, we decided to create a ‘virtual school visit’ that can be shared online to help spread important fire safety messages."

Doreen Hunt, 72, died on Mother's Day at Luton and Dunstable Hospital after contracting Covid-19.

Eastern Daily Press

The organiser of the World Dumpling Championships, launched in Norwich last year, has announced that, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the competition will run online in 2020, external.

Beginning this Saturday, March 28, and running for two weeks, participants are encouraged to post pictures of their dumpling-making attempts on social media, with the chance to win the ultimate prize – the Crystal Dumpling.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Northamptonshire Police chief constable Nick Adderley says his force control room has been inundated with calls from people reporting neighbours breaching coronavirus measures brought in by government this week and calling for them to be arrested.

People may only leave home to exercise once a day, travel to and from work when it is "absolutely necessary", shop for essential items and fulfil any medical or care needs.

Gatherings in public of more than two people who do not live together are also prohibited.

Mr Adderley said: "We are getting calls from people who say ‘I think my neighbour is going out on a second run – I want you to come and arrest them’. We have had dozens and dozens of these calls.

"We have had reports from people whose neighbours are gathering in their back gardens.

"We wouldn’t want to discourage people from making us aware, but we have to set expectations. If people think we will be descending on these houses with blue lights, then we won’t."

Edwin Hillier was an inmate at HMP Littlehey, a category C sex offenders' prison.

Tributes have been paid to John O'Conner, a Hertfordshire businessman, who has died after he was diagnosed with Covid-19.

The "much-loved family man" died at Lister Hospital, Stevenage on Tuesday, according to John O’Conner Grounds Maintenance, external, the company he founded.

The Welwyn-based firm said Mr O'Conner was admitted to hospital on 12 March.

"Due to underlying health issues he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit but died following a short battle with the illness," he said.

He started the business in 1969 and "steered it through its first 50 years", the company said.

Image source, John O'Conner Grounds Maintenance

Orla Moore
BBC News

City road projects across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been suspended in the light of the government's "stay at home" advice, the county council has confirmed.

Roadworks, including the development of the King's Dyke crossing and smaller inner-city projects, have been put on hold "to protect the public and workforce".

The A15 junction 18 Rhubarb Bridge works will end tomorrow as planned.

County council leader Steve Count said: "It is absolutely vital we all follow the advice from government and stay at home.

"We have assessed this impact on our highway services contracts and the ability to deliver on the ground and adopt a managed approach to the tightening restrictions and reduce risk."

John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: "We have to be sensible and protect the public as well as our workforce.

"With a number of supply chains shutting down their operations, the need for social distancing, along with the pressure on resource, we have had to take this decision to close down our sites."

Cambs Times

About 15 staff and volunteers have been shopping for those across Fenland who are at high risk, including the elderly and vulnerable people, during the coronavirus pandemic.

FACT launched the idea last week, external after closing its dial-a-ride and befriending services due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Instead of resting on their laurels, the group decided to run a ‘shop and drop’ service to continue helping the local community.

Image source, FACT Transport

Image source, Hunt family

The family of a grandmother who died after contracting Covid-19 have warned people to follow government advice and stay home.

Doreen Hunt, 72, who died at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, had underlying health issues.

Her son Stephen Hunt warned: "You might catch it. You might give it to somebody else. You might touch something somebody else touches and you could kill a relative, you just don't know."

Image source, Hunt family

BBC Look East

Clare Gray says her family will be unable to celebrate the diamond wedding anniversary of grandparents Margaret and Frank Gray in Norwich due to the coronavirus.

As the couple have been married for 60 years, they should also be receiving a card from the Queen.

Image source, Clare Gray

Happy anniversary, Margaret and Frank.

With the government's request for us to stay at home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, many people are now missing the opportunity to spend time in the great outdoors.

On the morning before the government announced its new guidelines resulting in the closure of many nature reserves, BBC Look East cameraman Shaun Whitmore was at Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk.

Here he shares his last trip to the reserve for a while.

A total of 78 hampers have been sent out to pupils from Lealands High School in Luton who would normally receive free school meals.

Each bag contains a week's worth of lunches and have been put together by catering provider AIP, the school said.

The school said this was a way of helping out "in the interim" until it could get a voucher system in place.

Image source, Lealands High School

Orla Moore
BBC News

It's only been a matter of days, but everyone is having to adjust to this new normal: social distancing and self-isolation at home.

Public health experts at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Ulster University are conducting research on how closing ourselves away is affecting our health and behaviour.

It focuses on how individuals are adapting, whether it's changing their diet and exercise - or rethinking smoking and drinking habits.

Dr Lee Smith, reader in Public Health at ARU, said: "During this global pandemic, it is important to investigate the impact of self-isolation on health, behaviour and well-being.

"This will help us to understand the health implications of this current outbreak, separate to the effects of Covid-19 itself, and ensure that governments and health bodies are better informed if a similar event was to happen in the future."

Anyone in the UK aged 18 or over who is self-isolating, or displaying symptoms - can take part in the 15-minute survey, external.

Pam Hayward in Brooke, Norfolk, sent us this poem written by her seven-year-old grandson Oliver Hayward from Little Easton, Essex.

She said he sent it to her "to cheer me up as I'm in self-imposed isolation."

Image source, Pam Hayward

Video shows police removing councillor Joanne Rust from a swimming pool in Tenerife.

"Gifts in kind" are needed at a hospice to help care for people at the end of their life.

St Clare Hospice, which covers West Essex and East Herts, urgently needs vital cleaning supplies.

Carolanne Brannan, director of patient care at the Hastingwood hospice, said: "The pandemic we’re currently facing as a nation is causing shortages in vital supplies that we are usually able to source without any issue."

It is looking for:

• Hand sanitiser gel
• Liquid hand wash
• Washing-up liquid
• Sanitising wipes
• Face masks
• Fabric anti-bacterial spray
• Medical scrubs and clothing for Hospice at Home staff, including leggings and t-shirts
• Tablets/iPads
• Laptops

Image source, St Clare Hospice

"There are still local people who need us," she said.

"So it’s absolutely vital that we’re able to stay open, keep caring, and ensure that we do so safely with the right essential equipment and supplies."