Staff applaud as first coronavirus patients are discharged from London's NHS Nightingale

The first Covid-19 patients have been discharged from the NHS Nightingale hospital in London.

Two men were applauded by staff as they were released from the temporary hospital at the ExCeL, east London, on Sunday afternoon.

They are the first people to be successfully discharged from care since the hospital welcomed its first patients on April 7.

The facility was built in nine days, though the NHS has never confirmed how many patients have been treated there, despite stating its capacity to cope with thousands of admissions.

NHS England said one of the patients was Simon Chung, a father-of-one in his 50s, who has now been transferred to Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, north London, to continue his treatment.

The London Nightingale is one of a network of seven sites providing surge capacity across England.