Here are the key coronavirus updates from the last 24-hours. 

  • Boris Johnson was moved out of intensive care last night. The Prime Minister is still being treated at St Thomas's Hospital in London but is said to be in “good spirits”. He is still being closely monitored, a Downing Street spokesman said.
  • Regionally, there was the largest day-on-day rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing to total number of confirmed cases to 3,076. Hospitals in the North-East reported a further 41 coronavirus patient deaths yesterday as a further 500 new cases were confirmed in the region. NHS England says 425 people have now died at North-East hospitals.
  • Police and councils across the region have urged people to stay at home over the Easter bank holiday weekend. Last night, foreign secretary Dominic Raab acknowledged that it was hard for people hoping to go out and be with their families over Easter, but he urged them to show restraint amid signs the measures were having an impact. 

He said: "Unfortunately right now we just can't do those sorts of things and I am really sorry about that.

"It's been almost three weeks and we're starting to see the impact of the sacrifices we've all made.”

  • Mr Raab said it was too soon to think about lifting restrictions, which were put in place almost three weeks ago. He said: “The deaths are still rising and we haven't yet reached the peak of the virus. So it's still too early to lift the measures that we put in place.

"We must stick to the plan and we must continue to be guided by the science."

  • The UK coronavirus death toll is expected to continue to rise for at least two weeks, the government’s chief scientific adviser has said, despite encouraging signs about the rate of infections and hospital admissions. Sir Patrick Vallance told Thursday’s daily Downing Street briefing that the number of people to have died from coronavirus in UK hospitals had reached 7,978, after the deaths of a further 881 people.

It is the second-highest daily total after Wednesday’s record 938 deaths.

  • Last night, thousands of people went out to once again clap in support of NHS workers and other carers. It is the third Thursday in a row communities have shown their support for frontline health workers. People from all over the region cheered and clapped as part of a national show of appreciation