and thanks the russian president for sending troops. england battle back on the third day of the fourth ashes test as jonny bairstow hits a century. hello and welcome to bbc news. 200 members of the armed forces are being drafted in to help hospitals in london struggling to deal with covid related staff shortages. the royal college of nursing said the government could no longer deny there was a staffing crisis in the nhs. pressure on london hospitals has increased over the past month, with 4,000 patients currently in hospital with covid compared with 1,100 in december. meanwhile, outside of london, hospitalisations have also been ticking upwards with almost 18,000 patients currently in hospital with covid. as of thursday afternoon, 17 hospital trusts in england were experiencing critical incidents concerned they might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care. it means they can get extra help and draft staff in from other duties. health secreta
labour says the prime minister still has serious questions to answer over the refurbishment of his downing street flat. england battle back on the third day of the fourth ashes test asjonny bairstow hits an unbeaten century in sydney. a letter has made its way to a care worker in northern ireland without having his actual address on it itjust contained his life story instead. we ll hear more from the letter s recipient. hello and welcome to bbc news. new figures reveal a sharp leap in covid related absences in the nhs in england. according to the latest data, on average over 35,000 staff at acute nhs trusts in england were off due to covid during the week ending two january. this is an increase of al% on the previous week, but some regional authorities showed much higher absences than the national average. north west england reported an 85% week on week increase in absences in the last few minutes it has been announced the army will help the ambulance service in the north