A total of 9,875 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Friday, the Department of Health and Social Care has said, up by 917 from 8,958 the day before, the youngest victim was only 11 years old.
It is a drop from yesterday’s 980 deaths though. However, it does put Britain on course to hit the grim 10,000-death milestone on Easter Sunday, which the country will spend in lockdown.
It added 334,974 tests have been carried out in the UK as of 9am on Saturday, including 18,091 tests on Friday.
Of the the 269,598 people tested, 78,991 have tested positive for Covid-19.
Backlash
No protective equipment is more important than the lives of healthcare workers, a nursing union has said, after ministers said it should be treated as a “precious resource”.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said there is enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to go round if it is used in line with official guidance, and his goal is that “everyone” working in a critical role gets what they need.
But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) dismissed any suggestions that healthcare staff were “abusing or overusing” PPE.
RCN general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday that no PPE was “more precious a resource than a healthcare worker’s life, a nurse’s life, a doctor’s life”.
Speaking later on BBC Breakfast Dame Donna said that every day she was hearing from nurses saying they did not have enough protective equipment.
Dame Donna added: “I take offence actually that we are saying that healthcare workers are abusing or overusing PPE.
“I think what we know is, we don’t have enough supply and not enough regular supply of PPE.
“This is the number one priority nurses are bringing to my attention, that they do not have adequate supply of protective equipment.”
The BMA medical union warned on Friday that PPE supplies in London and Yorkshire are at “dangerously low levels”.
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