England's North West has the highest number of coronavirus patients in hospital - the first time a region's total has passed London during the pandemic.
London has been the epicentre throughout most of the UK's outbreak and at the height of the crisis had far more cases than any other area.
The Government's latest data shows the number of patients in hospital in the North West was 2,191, compared with 2,033 in London - totals that are well below their respective peaks.
London's peak saw 4,813 patients in hospital on April 8, a UK record that came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital.
Have you been affected by coronavirus? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.
The peak in the North West came on April 3, when 2,908 people were in hospital with Covid-19.
London still has the most confirmed cases (24,828), followed by the North West (20,125), South East (17,537), West Midlands (13,577) and East (10,943).
The UK's coronavirus death toll - the third highest in the world - moved closer to 30,000 on Sunday as the Department of Health confirmed 315 more deaths.
The toll now in all settings stands at 28,446 as of 5pm on Saturday.
The number of deaths announced so far by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has reached 778.
This is the highest number for any trust in England.
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust has announced 520 deaths.
Three trusts have announced between 400 and 500 deaths: the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (446), King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (432) and Barts Health NHS Trust (412).
A further seven trusts have announced between 300 and 400 deaths.
Of the 21,180 confirmed reported deaths so far in hospitals in England of people who tested positive for Covid-19, 11,090 (52%) have been people aged 80 and over while 8,238 (39%) were 60-79.
A further 1,691 (8%) were aged 40-59, with 150 (1%) aged 20-39 and 11 (0.05%) aged 0-19, according to NHS England.
Britain has the third most deaths in the world behind only the US (68,602) and Italy (28,884).
Experts said it is likely the UK will end up the highest death toll in Europe.
Mr Johnson has said that Britain is now past its peak as confirmed cases and deaths trend down.
The UK is entering the seventh week of its lockdown, but there are growing calls for the restrictions to be eased.
The Prime Minister is expected to reveal a road map next Sunday, detailing exactly how restrictions will be lifted in order for Britons to safely return to work.
But the Government has also stressed that the nation's battle with coronavirus will continue after lockdown measures are eased.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said ministers are trying to source as many masks as possible in case they change the advice to recommend the public wears them.
He told Sky News on Monday morning: "It's not the amazing thing if you wear a mask that no one's going to get it but there is obviously this issue about human nature and interactions if you go on public transport and wear a mask will you feel able to go back to work.
"At the same time, to anticipate should different rules be made around masks we're trying to source as many masks as possible as we speak and have been for the last few weeks."
Mr Wallace said the public "aren't stupid" when asked about hesitancy to return to work when the lockdown is eased after weeks of strict stay-at-home messaging.
He said: "I strongly believe the public aren't stupid. They read advice, they listen to the media.
"They took on board the Government's advice... and I think they will be perfectly able to read the Government's next stage when we get to it.
"I'm totally confident when it comes to the next step we will all together be able to move forward."
Mr Wallace suggested the two-metre distancing rule could be relaxed to allow people to go back to work.
He added: "You can look at shielding, you can look at how long you stay near people. The two-metre rule reduces the possibility of infection by a certain amount of time.
"If you halve that it still keeps people away from being infected but for a lesser time. The probability of being infected is much less.
"I think there are options about how we can do it. You can wear PPE, that could be a possibility if you have to be in close proximity or indeed you could find other ways of doing it."
He pointed towards supermarket workers working behind "shields".
Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow Cabinet Office minister, said the public "deserve to be levelled with" over a detailed plan for easing lockdown measures.
She told BBC Breakfast: "We've been urging Government to publish a plan because businesses and other organisations... need time to plan and to prepare to put in place very different organisation in their businesses and, for example, schools.
"Government need to put in a range of measures - whether that is mass community testing, contact tracing, and also those things like potentially the face coverings.
"But also I think the public who have overwhelmingly stuck by these very tough lockdown rules over the last few weeks deserve to be levelled with and also want some hope for the future, so that's why we're urging the Government to give much more detail, and face masks are one part of that."
