Army helicopters stationed at an RAF base in Scotland are on standby to help the NHS amid the coronvirus outbreak.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove confirmed three RAF Puma helicopters are now stationed at Kinloss Barracks in Moray to meet requests for assistance from health boards and trusts across Scotland and northern England.
They will work alongisde a Chinook and Wildcat helicopter based at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire.
A second helicopter facility covers the Midlands and southern England, working out of RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.
During today's daily Covid-19 press conference from Downing Street, Gove also announced the first new ventilator devices will roll off the production line this weekend and be delivered to the NHS next week.
The UK is also buying ventilators from EU nations to meet hospital demand.
Gove said: "I can announce that this weekend the first of thousands of new ventilator devices will roll off the production line and be delivered to the NHS next week.
"From there, they will be rapidly distributed to the frontline."
"We have just over 8,000 ventilators deployed in NHS hospitals now. This number has increased since the epidemic began thanks to the hard work of NHS professionals, but we need more.
"That's why we are buying more ventilators from abroad, including from EU nations.
"It's also why we are developing new sources of supply at home."
During the update, Gove said that while the rate of coronavirus testing in the UK has increased, the country must go further and faster.
The Duchy of Lancaster claimed a "critical constraint" on the ability to rapidly increase testing capacity is the availability of the chemical reagents, but that Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock were working with companies worldwide to ensure the UK gets the material needed to increase tests "of all kind".
It came as medical director of NHS England Professor Stephen Powis said there is evidence the public was heeding the message on the need to maintain social distancing.
He said there was a "bit of a plateau" in the number of new cases of people testing positive for Covid-19.
"It is really important not to read too much because it is really early days. We are not out of the woods, we are very much in the woods," he said told the No 10 press conference.
"So green shoots but only green shoots and we must not be complacent and we must not take our foot off the pedal."
