London's NHS Nightingale hospital will be MOTHBALLED to new patients and kept as backup in case new Covid outbreak strikes Britain

• The ExCel Centre, which opened on April 3, has the capacity for 4,000 beds 
• Staff sent an email this morning from chief executive, Professor Charles Knight 
• Told hospital will be on standby, 'ready to resume operations when needed'

London's flagship Nightingale hospital will be closed to new patients and placed on standby, it has been revealed today. 

Staff were sent an email this morning from chief executive, Professor Charles Knight, who told them the hospital would be placed on standby, 'ready to resume operations as and when needed in the weeks and potentially months to come.'

The facility at the ExCeL Centre in east London, which opened on April 3, has the capacity to provide around 4,000 beds.

But it has remained largely empty, with just 51 patients treated in its first three weeks.

NHS England has not revealed how much has so far been spent on the Nightingale hospitals. 

The facility at the ExCeL Centre in east London, which opened on April 3, has the capacity to provide around 4,000 beds

Staff were sent an email this morning from chief executive, Professor Charles Knight, who told them the hospital would be placed on standby

In other developments in the coronavirus crisis today: 

• Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced a package of support worth almost £3billion to help universities weather the coronavirus crisis; 
• A smartphone app to trace the spread of coronavirus will be trialled on the Isle of Wight this week before being rolled out more widely later this month; 
• A new 'fast and accurate' coronavirus antibody test has been developed by scientists in Edinburgh, although the company fears the NHS could miss out amid interest in Europe for the machines; 
• Heathrow Airport has warned travellers could face queues a kilometre long to board flights;  
• Former Government chief scientific adviser Sir David King has assembled a group of experts to look at how the UK could work its way out of the lockdown in response to concerns over the 'lack of transparency' coming from the Sage group of advisers;
• Rail unions have today been accused of trying to stymie Britain's recovery while holding the country to ransom after they said it was 'premature' to open up the country's public transport network when the lockdown eases 

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told MailOnline: ‘In relation to London, it is not likely that in the coming days we will need to be admitting patients to the London Nightingale while coronavirus in the capital remains under control.

‘That is obviously a very positive thing and we are grateful to everybody in London for following the government’s advice and helping to protect the NHS.

‘What the Nightingale will be is effectively placed on stand by so it would be ready to receive patients should that be required but we are not anticipating that will be the case.’

When asked what will happen to the other Nightingale hospitals, the spokesman added: ‘I think five of the seven are open and they provide hundreds of extra beds if local services need them.

‘Manchester has taken some patients already and Birmingham, Harrogate and Bristol are ready to take patients if needed. The other two are Sunderland and Exeter and they are due to open shortly.’

He added: ‘We view the fact that the Nightingales have not had to be used in a significant way as something that is positive and we are grateful to the public for its role in that.’ 

He said he 'absolutely did not' agree with critics who said the hospitals were a waste of money.

Staff at the hospital were told at a meeting on Friday that a decision on its future was expected to be made early this week.

Professor Knight told them today: 'Thanks to the determination of Londoners following expert advice to stay home and save lives, we haven't had to expand Nightingale's capacity. 

'Our appreciation to all who have been involved in making the Nightingale a key part of the NHS' whole London COVID-19 response. 

'This is a significant point in how the NHS is managing this pandemic. It does not mean our role in London's response to the virus is over.'

A leaked internal email, obtained by the Daily Mail, said that while the hospital remained open and 'in theory accepting admissions' it now looked likely that the initial peak of the coronavirus outbreak had passed.

It added: 'Therefore one possible outcome is for this site to be put into hibernation - ready to come out of hibernation, but not requiring staffing.' 

It is understood that all staff and volunteers that have worked at the site will be given a thank you item, such as a lanyard or T-shirt, when it closes down.

Five Nightingale hospitals have been opened so far in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate, but they have so far received a very small number of patients.

There were also plans for two more in Exeter and Tyne and Wear, although it is believed these may now be scrapped.

NHS England's national medical director yesterday said it would have been 'foolish' not to plan for extra capacity to tackle the coronavirus. 

Professor Stephen Powis said that the extra capacity provided by the newly built Nightingale hospitals may still be needed.

Asked at the Government's daily press briefing if the hospitals were built in error, Professor Powis said: 'Absolutely 100% not.

'If you wind the clock back a month or two, we were looking at an increase in the number of cases, infections, in the UK.

'We were watching images from around the world of health systems that were overwhelmed and we had not put in place, were about to put in place, a series of social distancing measures not absolutely knowing how the public would respond to that.

'And it would have been foolish to have not planned for extra capacity within the NHS. We did that in a number of ways including the Nightingales.'

There were also plans for two more in Exeter and Tyne and Wear, but it is believed these may now be scrapped. Pictured: An ambulance outside the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre, in London

Professor Powis continued: 'The fact that we have not needed to use all that capacity is actually good news because it means that the public have complied with the social distancing measures, they've started to flatten that curve and we've seen fewer admissions and ultimately fewer deaths than we might have seen if this virus had just been left to spread unchecked.

'And the very early worst case scenarios that no country has let play out would have meant many, many, many deaths and an awful lot of pressure on health services.

'So I think you would have been a hundred, a thousand times more critical if the NHS had not put in that extra capacity and had become overwhelmed.

'You would be quite rightly asking us why we had not gone every mile that we could possibly go to, to put in that extra capacity.'

He concluded: 'So the Nightingales were not built in error and we may still need them.

'We are not through this yet and although government policy and the scientific advice is to try and ensure that the virus does not start to spread widely again, we can never absolutely be certain.

'And therefore for the months ahead, we need to maintain that extra capacity until we have more certainty.'