Tees firm Cleveland Cable Company has made a delivery of what will be the main power cables for London’s vast new temporary coronavirus hospital.

A minimal number of the Middlesbrough-headquartered firm’s usual 600-strong workforce has continued to work since the government’s introduction of a virtual UK lockdown.

Their work has focused on 'essential services', supplying cables for hospitals, telecoms, rail and standby power for a range of important facilities.

The firm was asked to supply the huge cables that will supply power to the Excel exhibition centre which is being converted into the Nightingale Hospital to treat patients with covid-19.

The emergency facility in Canning Town, east London, will eventually hold 4,000 critical care beds across two wards, with NHS planners said to be aiming to have 500 of the beds in place by Monday.

A spokesman said that a 'skeleton' workforce had been retained on the firm’s Middlesbrough site to provide cables for essential services in the UK fight against the viral pandemic.

Dave Allan, a spokesman for the company, said: “Whilst the majority of our staff have been asked to stay at home, a minimal number continue to work on the site to ensure the firm’s ability to provide a quick response to help important facilities and services around the country keep running during the ongoing crisis.

“Naturally, all of our staff will be working under strict Public Health guidelines and will follow best practices in social distancing during all activities.

“The health and safety of all our staff is always our number one priority and that is very much to the fore of our thoughts during this period when our company has become part of the UK’s critical supply chain in the fight against Covid-19.”

Whilst its headquarters are on Riverside Park in Middlesbrough, Cleveland Cable Company is a global cable and cable accessory supplier with eight locations across the UK and a branch in Dubai.