FURTHER coronavirus restrictions for some parts of England, including the North-East and North Yorkshire, are expected today in a bid to help tackle the spread of the virus which has led to “significant pressure” on the NHS.

Matt Hancock confirmed that “further action” will have to be taken as cases of the virus continue to rise.

The number of lab-confirmed cases recorded in a single day in the UK hit a new record on Tuesday, rising above 50,000 for the first time, to 53,135.

But the Government has faced criticism as many Nightingale Hospitals, set up to help ease pressure on the health service during the pandemic, "stand empty". 

But a field site in North Yorkshire has been running some services since June, with officials urging that Harrogate and Sunderland Nightingale hospitals "can take patients if required". 

A spokesperson for the NHS in the North East and Yorkshire said: “The Nightingale hospitals in the North East and Yorkshire can take patients if required.

"The Nightingale hospital in Harrogate has been running a clinical imaging service since June with more than 3,000 patients receiving a diagnostic test or CT scan.”

It comes as hospitals in England struggle under the strain of dealing with a higher number of Covid-19 patients than ever during the pandemic, surpassing the first wave peak that was seen in April.

A medic has urged the public to help take the pressure off Teesside hospitals as covid-19 cases hit record numbers.

The North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said it was currently dealing with 166 coronavirus cases – the equivalent of five-and-a-half wards full of patients and more than half its total number of beds.

On Tuesday the trust, which operates hospitals in Stockton and Hartlepool, reported 20 deaths had occurred from the virus over Christmas, which represented the highest number of covid-19 deaths on Teesside for a single day since the start of the pandemic.

Dr Nick Scriven, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the rising number of coronavirus patients in hospital is “extremely worrying” but says there is not enough staff for Nightingale sites. 

He said: “With the numbers approaching the peaks from April, systems will again be stretched to the limit. It is not ‘just the case’ of using the Nightingale hospital as there are simply no staff for them to run as they were originally intended (mini intensive care units).

“They could play a role perhaps if used as rehabilitation units for those recovering but, again, where do we find the specialist staff – the NHS simply does not have the capacity to spare anyone.

“Using ‘surge’ capacity as NHS England suggests will mean mobilising any usable bed area and stretching staff to look after patients there – often outside the normal ‘comfort zone’ of staff, e.g. unwell medical patients on surgical wards, or, even less safely, opening up ‘mothballed’ areas (‘ghost wards’ from previous years) and spreading staff more thinly than usually considered optimal or even safe.

“This will, of course, mean cancelling elective care again. With ICU capacity there will be a need to utilise every ICU bed in a region and the nursing operating theatre areas like in the spring, again hitting elective surgical lists.”

Pressure on the NHS is one of five factors that Government looks at when deciding whether an area moves up or down a Covid tier.

London’s Nightingale hospital remains on standby for use, NHS England has insisted, despite the removal of some equipment from the site.

Last month, The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Nightingale Hospital North East, near Sunderland, warned of fewer patient beds, and more deaths, unless the region's cases started to fall.

The Nightingale hospital in Manchester started receiving non-Covid patients in October