Healthcare workers in Rome have been given some much needed comfort and cheer by a concert held in a corridor of one of the city's hospitals, as intensive care units struggle to cope with a surge of COVID-19 patients.

The four-piece band was greeted with warm applause by onlooking staff at the Policlinico Tor Vergata hospital in Italy's capital.

The hospital's intensive care units are already overwhelmed with patients, but there are fears the situation could get even worse in the coming weeks.

"We all know that families have come together in spite of everything, that some of them have celebrated New Year's Eve, and so we expect a peak that should arrive in 10-15 days, in connection with the Christmas and New Year's Day celebrations," Policlinico Tor Vergata's Head of ICU, Francesca Leonardis, said.

The hope in Rome, just like the rest of the world, is that the arrival of vaccines will soon help bring the return to normality.

Massimo Andreoni, head of infectious diseases at the Policlinico Tor Vergata hospital, said: "The vaccine is definitely what we've been waiting for. It's likely the solution to all our problems.

"But we have to understand that vaccination has to be very important. We see, for example, in the UK that over 1 million people have been vaccinated and yet the country had to decide on a new lockdown. This proves that 1 million people vaccinated is still too few and therefore we need to reach 70 percent of the vaccinated population to see the effect of the vaccine," he added.

Video editing: David Bamford