Queen’s hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Goodmayes will be increasing their critical care capacity to look after a surge of patients with Covid-19.

The Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), has confirmed it has seen an increase in patients admitted with coronavirus across both hospitals.

This comes after official data has shown that Covid cases are continuing to rise across east London, such as in Havering, where cases went from 420 to 628 over seven days.

BHRUT's chief medical officer, Magda Smith, said: “We are seeing an increase in the number of patients with Covid-19 being admitted to our hospitals and we are increasing our critical care capacity to manage this.

“To help keep our patients and staff safe at this time, we are asking visitors to continue to observe all of our infection control practices, including wearing masks inside our hospitals.”