VIRGIN Atlantic and Easyjet have today written to grounded employees asking them to help in the NHS' new Nightingale hospitals in a bid to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Easyjet has already contacted all 9,000 of its employees, including 4,000 or so cabin crew staff trained in CPR, whilst Virgin will begin writing to 4,000 of its staff tomorrow, starting with those with the right training.

The NHS has announced plans to open three new Nightingale hospitals in London's Docklands Excel conference centre, Manchester and Birmingham in order to boost bed capacity to handle the expected surge in coronavirus cases.

The three new hospitals which each initially have 500 beds, but all have the capacity to serve at least double that number of cases.

The NHS has also freed up 33,000 beds in existing facilities across the country, the equivalent of about 50 hospitals, chief executive Sir Simon Stephens said last Friday.

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