At least 82 NHS workers and 16 social care staff have died after contracting coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed.
It came as Mr Hancock announced a new life assurance scheme to pay £60,000 to the families of those frontline NHS and social care workers who have died in the course of their duties.
“I feel a deep personal sense of duty that we must care for their loved ones," he said.
“Of course, nothing replaces the loss of a loved one but we want to do everything we can to support families who are dealing with this grief,” he said.
The Government was also looking at other frontline professions who did not have access to a life assurance scheme, Mr Hancock said.
A total of 21,092 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by 360 from 20,732 the day before.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the coronavirus epidemic in the UK still has a “very long way to run” and there was “no perfect solution” to easing the lockdown, adding there were “difficult choices” to be made.
Some 29,058 tests had been carried out in England, Scotland and Wales in the 24 hours up to 9am on Saturday, according to the latest figures, suggesting the Government is way off its 100,000 a day target set for this Thursday.
Mr Hancock said the Government was “broadly where we expected to be” in terms of testing capacity but admitted there was a lot of work to do to hit the 100,000 a day goal.
As a result of falling hospitalisations, some key NHS services which had been paused due to coronavirus will be restored from Tuesday, starting with the most urgent cases first.
Mr Hancock said: “As the number of hospitalisations from coronavirus begins to fall, I can announce that, starting tomorrow, we will begin the restoration of other NHS services – starting with the most urgent, like cancer care and mental health support."
