NHS workers on the frontline of the battle against coronavirus braved the downpour tonight to sing You'll Never Walk Alone and join in with the nation's applause.
At Aintree Hospital, staff members were able to smile through the bouncing rain and hold up congratulations signs for Captain Tom Moore who celebrated his 100th birthday today after walking 100 laps of the garden of his care home to raise over £32 million.
But also on the minds of those who participated in tonight's clap for carers will be two of the hospital's staff members who died within days of each other of coronavirus earlier in April.
Long-serving Staff Nurse at Aintree University Hospital Liz Glanister died on Friday April 3, and Barbara Moore a patient discharge planner passed away only days later on Monday 6.
In a statement handed to the ECHO at the time, the family of Liz Glanister said: "There are so many heroes out there, just like Liz, who are all putting their lives in danger to help save ours, so please help them to be the best they can be and stay inside.
"Losing a loved one at any time is heart-breaking, but to go through it as we and many other families are is simply beyond words.”
Earlier on Thursday evening, Boris Johnson said the UK was "past the peak and on the downward slope" of the coronavirus pandemic in his first appearance at a daily press briefing since being hospitalised for Covid-19.
Apologising for his absence, Mr Johnson - who came close to death while battling the virus only weeks ago - added he would be revealing a "comprehensive plan".
He said: “I will be releasing a comprehensive plan next week to explain how to get the economy moving, get our kids back into school and travel to work and make life in the workplace safer and how we can suppress the disease and restart the economy."
He then added that we have several reasons to be hopeful for the long-term, saying the UK was leading international efforts to find a vaccine but stressed until that day comes we're going to have to beat the disease through our "resolve and ingenuity".
He said: “We are being guided by the science and will try to build political consensus, there will be five key tests that we must satisfy before putting the plan into action.”
Of all these measures, the one the Prime Minister stressed of being most important was keeping what scientist's call R, the rate of infection, down to below one per cent.
During the briefing, the Prime Minister read out that more than 26,000 people in the UK have died due to coronavirus but said this total could have been nearer 500,000 deaths if social distancing had not been put in place.
He also said that the total number of deaths in the UK had risen by 674 up from 26,097 the day before.
Earlier today the ECHO reported that hundreds more people in Merseyside have died during the coronavirus pandemic than had been officially reported.
Figures from Liverpool Council's Public Health team show that while official figures for the region recorded 777 coronavirus deaths between March 21 and April 24, there have been hundreds more excess deaths in that same period.
During this timeframe, the number of deaths which occurred in Merseyside was almost twice the average number of deaths, with 2,243 actual registered deaths against an anticipated seasonal average of 1,170 expected.
