Video caption: Covid: Man one of last to leave as Newcastle's RVI ward closesCovid: Man one of last to leave as Newcastle's RVI ward closes
As the last Covid ward at Newcastle's RVI closes, one of the last patients is clapped out by staff.
Last normal photo before lockdown
Today marks a year on from the start of lockdown and we've been asking people to share the last "normal" picture they took ahead of everyone's lives changing.
Jean Egan Howes, from Redcar, sent us this photo from an aerial yoga session in
Middlesbrough on 15 March 2020. She did three of the six sessions before
lockdown started.
She said: “It was something I fancied trying and was great
fun.”
Michael Brown from Amble in Northumberland was infected with coronavirus at the very start of the pandemic.
He worked as lorry driver and said he was normally "as fit as a lop until I caught this virus".
He hasn't been able to work since he fell ill and was taken to hospital. He said it's been a horrible experience: "I did ask them to let me die at one point as I was so ill, because I was fed up of the pain and everything."
Since then he's been in and out of hospital for treatment and has been told he has long Covid.
He said: "I'm aching from head to toe, with a bad head and a load of other things. The only place I haven't got any pain is in my chest, I can't stop coughing and I'm very, very weak, very short of breath."
BBCCopyright: BBC
Millennium Bridge to turn yellow to mark Day of Reflection
Gateshead's Millennium Bridge will turn yellow tonight marking the anniversary since the first national lockdown and Marie Curie's National Day of Reflection.
A minute's silence will be held twice today to reflect on the collective loss and support those who have been bereaved.
Live Reporting
All times stated are UK
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As the last Covid ward at Newcastle's RVI closes, one of the last patients is clapped out by staff.
Last normal photo before lockdown
Today marks a year on from the start of lockdown and we've been asking people to share the last "normal" picture they took ahead of everyone's lives changing.
We've been flooded with responses as people told us about what they'd been doing in the days before 23 March 2020.
Jean Egan Howes, from Redcar, sent us this photo from an aerial yoga session in Middlesbrough on 15 March 2020. She did three of the six sessions before lockdown started.
She said: “It was something I fancied trying and was great fun.”
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Michael Brown from Amble in Northumberland was infected with coronavirus at the very start of the pandemic.
He worked as lorry driver and said he was normally "as fit as a lop until I caught this virus".
He hasn't been able to work since he fell ill and was taken to hospital. He said it's been a horrible experience: "I did ask them to let me die at one point as I was so ill, because I was fed up of the pain and everything."
Since then he's been in and out of hospital for treatment and has been told he has long Covid.
He said: "I'm aching from head to toe, with a bad head and a load of other things. The only place I haven't got any pain is in my chest, I can't stop coughing and I'm very, very weak, very short of breath."
Millennium Bridge to turn yellow to mark Day of Reflection
Gateshead's Millennium Bridge will turn yellow tonight marking the anniversary since the first national lockdown and Marie Curie's National Day of Reflection.
A minute's silence will be held twice today to reflect on the collective loss and support those who have been bereaved.
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