The UK Government has been slammed for saying PPE should be treated as a "precious resource" as it was confirmed 19 NHS workers in the UK have died from coronavirus.
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 a nursing union said no protective equipment is more important than the lives of healthcare workers.
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."
It comes as Hancock also confirmed that 19 NHS workers have died from coronavirus.
He said: "My heart goes out to their families, these are people who have put themselves on the front line.
"I'm particularly struck at the high proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds and people who have come to this country to work in the NHS who have died of coronavirus.
"I find it really upsetting actually and it is a testament to the fact that people who have come from all over the world have come and given their lives in service to the NHS and paid for that with their lives."
The BMA medical union warned on Friday that PPE supplies in London and Yorkshire are at "dangerously low levels".
Hancock acknowledged distributing masks, gloves, aprons and hand sanitiser to frontline workers is requiring a "Herculean logistical effort".
He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday it was important that healthcare workers use the "right amount" of protective equipment.
He added: "I am not impugning anyone who works for the NHS and I think they do an amazing job.
"But what I am reiterating, stressing, is the importance to use the right amount of PPE both to have enough and also to use it as the precious resource that it is."
The row comes as the Government is urging the public to stay at home over Easter, after the UK recorded its highest daily death toll from coronavirus since the outbreak began.
The latest figures from the Department of Health and Social Care showed that as of Thursday there were 8,958 hospital deaths from the disease - an increase of 980 on the previous day.
