CORONAVIRUS has taken over the world.

The number of cases globally is approaching one million and closer to home everyone is united in the battle to contain and eventually beat the virus.

Here is a summary of a week which will go down in the history books, told through images.

We have watched as London’s ExCeL centre has been turned into the new Nightingale Hospital.

Set to be operational soon, 500 beds are already in place and there is space for another 3,500 if needed.

More makeshift hospitals are being prepared in Birmingham, Scotland and Wales.

The Government has worked with airlines on a huge multi-national operation to bring ten of thousands of Britons home from overseas, the first flights of which have now landed in the UK.

Colchester’s residents are also doing their bit to help in the fight against Covid-19.

This week we’ve reported on Spike Townsend, who has set up a community control centre in the Five Bells pub in Colne Engaine, and former Royal Marine Sean Wilson, who is running 61 miles INSIDE his flat to raise money for Age UK.

Troops from 16 Medical Regiment have now shipped out of Merville Barracks in Colchester to the Falkland Islands to help the territory’s only hospital deal with the outbreak.