Here's a round-up of some of the main coronavirus news points from the last 24-hours.

  • North-East leaders have sent a strong message to Westminster as they fight for the region to be spared the strictest coronavirus restrictions. The move comes after leaders of County Durham, Northumberland, Newcastle, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead, Sunderland agreed to oppose any tightening of restrictions on a conference call yesterday. In a statement they said that Tier 3 is the “wrong strategy” for the region and will argue the North-East should remain in Tier 2, with infection figures being closely monitored and an “intensified” communications strategy to “win public support”.

The Northern Echo:

  • Half the population of England will be under stricter lockdown measures from Saturday. London will move into Tier 2 of the alert system from Saturday, banning people from separate households mixing indoors – including in pubs and restaurants. Essex, Elmbridge, Barrow-in-Furness, York, North East Derbyshire, Erewash and Chesterfield will also move into the second tier of measures. Meanwhile, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham claimed England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam has told him the only way to bring the virus back under control is a national lockdown.
  • A further 1,555 people have tested positive for Covid in the North-East and North Yorkshire as of Thursday. There have also been a further 81 deaths in hospitals in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 30,743. Patients were aged between 40 and 99 and all but three, aged between 67 and 86, had known underlying health conditions. The deaths were between August 17 and October 14, with the majority on or after October 9. Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 58,500 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. The total number of cases in the UK is now 673,622.

The Northern Echo:

  • Figures show there were 4,379 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England on Thursday, up from 3,044 a week ago, while 482 were in ventilation beds, up from 368 a week ago. A total of 764 patients with confirmed Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Tuesday, compared with 524 a week earlier.
  • Italy, San Marino and Vatican City State have been removed from the Government’s list of travel corridors, meaning travellers arriving in England from those places after 4am on Sunday must self-isolate for 14 days, the Department for Transport said. Meanwhile, the Greek island of Crete has been added to the Government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus, the Department for Transport said. This means passengers arriving in England from Crete from 4am on Sunday will no longer need to self-isolate.