The ExCel conference centre in London will begin treating Covid-19 patients within days, it has been announced.

Unveiling the plan yesterday (24 Mar), Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said the 100,000 square metre dockland site would be converted into two wards, each equipped to care for 2,000 patients.

The makeshift hospital has been named ‘NHS Nightingale’, after the statistician and pioneer of modern medicine, Florence Nightingale.