Families of NHS and social care staff who die from coronavirus in the course of "essential frontline work" will receive a £60,000 payment, it has been announced.
Announcing the life assurance scheme at the daily Downing Street Covid-19 briefing Heath Secretary Matt Hancock said: "Families and staff who die from coronavirus in the course of their essential frontline work will receive a £60,000 payment."
He added: "Nothing replaces the loss of a loved one but we want to do everything we can to support families who are dealing with grief."
Mr Hancock said 82 NHS staff and 16 care workers are confirmed to have died from coronavirus but the real figure is thought to be higher and more than 100.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis has backed the scheme saying it was the 'least we can do'.
He said: "It’s only right the families of all those who worked for the NHS or in social care, and who’ve sadly lost their lives to the virus, are properly provided for.
“Until now, the relatives of any low-paid health worker who died and had opted out of the NHS pension scheme would've received nothing.
"Nor would the families of care workers on precarious contracts. Thankfully now that wrong has been put right.
“Until their untimely deaths, all were looking after patients, saving lives, caring for the elderly and the vulnerable in our hospitals and care homes.
"Putting themselves in harm’s way, while most of us were safe at home.
“All the money in the world can’t replace a loved one. Nor can it lessen the deep grief relatives are experiencing.
“But providing financial security for the families of all those who’ve paid the ultimate price for their professionalism and dedication is the very least we can do."
Mr Hancock announced that some NHS services which had been paused due to the coronavirus outbreak will be restored from Tuesday.
He 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.
"The exact pace of the restoration will be determined by local circumstances on the ground, according to local need and according to the amount of coronavirus cases that that hospital is having to deal with."
Chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty said the country is not "consistently" past the peak of coronavirus deaths.
He said there was an "artificial drop" over the weekend typically seen because of lower notification rates.
"Nevertheless the trend overall ... is a gradual decline but we're definitely not consistently past the peak across the whole country at this point in time," he added.
Prof Whitty said there was still a "very long way to run" as he was asked about the expected death total the UK might face.
His colleague chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had suggested that keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a good outcome - but that total has been surpassed in hospitals alone.
"We need to view this epidemic over the long run and this has got a very long way to run," Prof Whitty said.
"I'm really cautious about putting out these kind of absolute numbers, because this could go in a lot of different ways over the next many months until such time as we have a clear exit that has a vaccine or drugs or some other route that allows us to be able to say we now can stop people dying from this.
"This is going to be true, to be clear, in every country around the world."
This afternoon Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the government would provide 100% guarantees on loans to the UK's smallest businesses in the latest move to shield the economy and workers from the coronavirus shutdown.
Sunak said the government would pay the interest on loans of up to £50,000 on behalf of firms for the first 12 months.
"The Government, which has been consulting extensively with business representatives about the design of the new scheme, will provide lenders with a 100% guarantee for the loan and pay any fees and interest for the first 12 months.
"No repayments will be due during the first 12 months," the Treasury said in a statement.
Today the UK death toll rose by the lowest figure in a month - 350.
But there is a concern that could just be a lag in collating deaths from Covid-19 over the weekend.
The figures published by NHS England show April 8 continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 857.
Boris Johnson addressed the country outside 10 Downing Street for the first time since coming out of intensive care this morning.
The Prime Minister stepped outside to deliver his first speech in public since fighting for his life against Covid-19 and being saved by NHS doctors and nurses.
Mr Johnson said social distancing must go on, otherwise the nation would risk "not only a new wave of death and disease, but also an economic disaster".
That, he said, would force the UK to "slam on the brakes" with a nationwide second lockdown.
He added: "I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life and the overwhelming of the NHS."
