Health Secretary Matt Hancock has appealed for 250,000 volunteers to help the NHS as thousands of former medics answer the government’s call to return to the NHS. More than 24,000 final-year student nurses and medics will also join the health service.

Mr Hancock has announced that the Excel convention centre in London will be converted into an NHS-run field hospital with 4,000 beds for coronavirus patients, opening next week. Additionally, 3.5m antibody tests have been purchased that will show if people have had the coronavirus, and a new testing facility has opened in Milton Keynes. Meanwhile, doctors are threatening to quit the NHS over fears they are being asked to work with inadequate protective equipment.