Kate Garraway and Gemma Collins lead stars urging us all to stay at home to help defeat Covid

GOOD Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway has lead a host of stars in urging the nation to stay at home to help defeat Covid-19.

She was joined by other celebrities such as Gemma Collins, Harry Redknapp and Joey Essex, encouraging people to follow the lockdown rules.

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Brits are currently living through a third national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first was in March last year, the second in November last year and the third was put in place in January and is still ongoing.

The key messages throughout the lockdowns have been to "stay home, protect the NHS and save lives".

The video was part of a government campaign in partnerships with the All Together initiative with newspaper groups across the country.

Addressing the nation, Kate, 53, whose husband Derek has been in hospital due to complications caused by Covid-19 said: "Please stay safe and stay at home if you can."

Kate today revealed her heartache at being unable to see husband Derek at Christmas and said "there is no end in sight".

She said: "I haven't been able to see him since Christmas, we're back into situation of looking at strangers in masks.

"That’s the situation for everybody at the moment. It’s tough. When you’re someone like him, dealing with a consciousness problem and trying to emerge, I can't help but fear it’s not helpful. There’s no end in sight to that. There’s no one to blame or be angry with. It’s tough."

It's been an incredibly hard year for Kate and her family after Derek fell ill with coronavirus and subsequent complications that left him in a coma.

She bravely returned to work last summer and has kept herself busy ever since. However, she recently took some time off after falling ill, which she thinks might have been a result of the immense stress she's been under.

Kate's plea to the nation was followed by a message from Virgin Radio presenter Graham Norton who said: "Please stay at home, protect the NHS."

Presenter Angellica Bell, then adds: "We are nearly there. Please do stay at home if you can so we can be together soon".

Myleen Klass, Dr Amir Khan, and I'm a Celeb star Shane Richie also reminded Brits that "we're all in this together".

Former TOWIE star Gemma Collins added: "Stay home, save live, protect our NHS."

Just two weeks ago the reality star revealed that her Dad had finally left hospital after battling Covid.

Her elderly Dad Alan had been fighting for his life and Gemma had previously warned that he "might not make it";.

Opening up on her podcast she said: "It literally tears you apart.

"Our house is not the same without my dad and it has been such a scary time because we just haven’t known how he was going to be. And if he was going to make it...

"There were moments where we all had to have the chat about you know what if dad doesn’t pull through."

Gemma has recently celebrated her 40th birthday and said non of the plans she had mattered because her dad had survived Covid.

She said: "That's not going to happen but it doesn’t matter because my dad has survived Covid."

She continued: "They actually called my dad the miracle man in hospital.

"My dad is 73 and he's a very fit man, however Covid really ripped through my family and it was just so heartbreaking. It was so heartbreaking to see my dad fighting for his life."

Joey Essex, Jordan North, Harry Redknapp, Sharon Osbourne and Chris Evans among others also urged Brits to stay at home and stay safe.

Other celebs appearing included England footballer Jesse Lingard, former boxer Frank Bruno, Strictly's Shirley Ballas, hypnotist Paul McKenna, and MasterChef presenter Greg Wallace.

The message comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night addressed the nation during a press conference at Downing Street.

He urged people to continue to abide by the rules and asked care home staff to come forward to receive their vaccine before the target date of February 15.

At a Downing Street press conference, he said: "With less than a week to go until the target date of Monday the 15th, there's no doubt we've made great strides, with just over 13 million people now vaccinated in our United Kingdom, including one in four adults in England, over 90% of everyone over 75 and over 90% of eligible residents of care homes for the elderly.

";But that still leaves nearly two million people, a population roughly twice the size of Birmingham, that we still hope to reach.

"Now is the moment to do it."

Yesterday a further 1,001 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the official UK death toll to 114,851.