Coronavirus deaths of two nurses lead to calls for more protection

[MissBehavin]

Demands for better protection for the UK’s healthcare workers are growing following the death of two nurses in their 30s, while another frontline worker quit her job after being forbidden from wearing a face mask, Haroon Siddique, Nazia Parveen and Alexandra Topping write.

Areema Nasreen, 36, died shortly after midnight on Friday at Walsall Manor hospital in the West Midlands, where she had worked for 16 years. Aimee O’Rourke, 38, who joined the NHS in 2017 and worked at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent, died hours earlier, on Thursday night. Both were mothers of three children.

Two NHS healthcare assistants have also died. The family of Thomas Harvey, 57, who worked in north-east London, believe he would still be alive today if he had been given proper personal protective equipment (PPE), they told Sky News.