8 Daily Express Monday, April 6, 2020
NURSES’ TRIBUTE TO LOVING AND CARING MIDWIFE
TRIBUTES have been paid to
two more NHS workers who
have died from Covid-19.
Midwife Lynsay Coventry,
54, was named yesterday as
her devastated colleagues at
Princess Alexandra Hospital
NHS Trust in Harlow, Essex,
lined the corridors and bowed
their heads in respect.
Her family said: “Our hearts
are broken at the loss of our
loving, wonderful and caring
mum, sister, daughter and
grandmother. Her love for us
all was unfailing and herstrength in the way she cared
and supported us will fill our
memories.” The trust said
Lynsay died on Thursday
after self-isolating at home.
She was not at work when
her symptoms developed.
Meanwhile, Liz Glanister, a
long-serving staff nurse at
Aintree University Hospital,
died on Friday after testing
positive for coronavirus.
Liverpool University
Hospitals NHS Foundation
Trust said: “All our thoughts
are with her family.”A spokeswoman for Watford
General Hospital described the
nurse as “very popular” and said
he would be “missed greatly”.
She added: “Our staff are fully
briefed on symptoms of Covid-
and we would never expect anyone
to remain at work if they were
showing these symptoms or
indeed were unwell in any way.
“We have always kept our staff
updated on the latest PPE
guidance to make sure they have
the right level of protection.”
The day after his death, Watford
General Hospital declared a critical
incident after a “technical issue”
with its oxygen equipment.
It urged all patients – other than
women due to give birth – to go to
other hospitals.
Two nurses, Aimee O’Rourke, 38,
and Areema Nasreen, 36, have also
died after treating patients for
Covid-19.
Chief nursing officer Ruth May
paid tribute to her colleagues
who have died from coronavirus,
adding “I worry that there is going
to be more. They were one of us –
of the NHS family.
“I worry that there’s going to be
more and I want to honour them
today and recognise their service.”work after showing symptoms.
The Health Secretary confirmed
that it means nearly 100,
NHS workers are self-isolating
amid the pandemic.
Among frontline doctors,
some 5.7 per cent are off work.
But Mr Hancock played down
claims that this was increasing.
He explained: “Those figures
are stable but we want to get
them down, obviously. One way
we do that is by getting testing
for NHS staff up.”
The minister also warned that
hitting his promise of 100,
coronavirus tests by the end of
April will be tough.
And he said that people
involved in the efforts will have
to “put their shoulders to thewheel” to hit the target. He said
the Government is on track to
meet its goal of ventilator capac-
ity for 18,000 patients, but he
admitted that may not be in
place before the expected peak.
Mr Hancock said the virus is
expected to peak within a week
to 10 days but admitted that the
ventilator capacity will likely be
below 18,000 by then.
He told the BBC’s Andrew
Marr Show: “We need to make
sure we have more ventilators
than there are people who need
ventilation.
“At the moment, we have
between 9,000 and 10,000 ven-
tilators within the NHS right
now and we have the 2,
spare that are critical care beds
with ventilator capacity should
people need to come into them –
and we’re ramping that up.
“The answer is that our goal,
instead of the 30,000, is that we
need 18,000 ventilators over the
coming two weeks.”
Asked how many there will be
in a week’s time, he said: “There
should be another 1,500.”
Mr Hancock was quizzed on
whether the country will be
below the capacity it needs when
the virus is expected to peak.
He replied said: “No, because
thankfully we’ve got the demand
down because the vast majority
of people are following their
social distancing guidelines.”
Mr Hancock added: “If we
manage to get this to peak within
a week to 10 days, ventilator
demand will be lower than
18,000.”By Steph SpyroBy Martyn Brown
Senior Political CorrespondentCORONAVIRUS:
Colleagues line the corridor in tribute8.GHDWKVJHW
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THE UK’s coronavirus death toll
is nearing 5,000 after a further
621 people died from the disease
in the past 24 hours – with 29 of
those having no apparent under-
lying health conditions.
But the daily figure, which
lifted the overall total of fatali-
ties last night to 4,934, was lower
than the 708 on Saturday and
the 684 on Friday.
The number of new daily
infections jumped – with 5,
more people testing positive in
the past 24 hours, compared
with 3,735 on Saturday.
It means that there have been
47,806 confirmed cases of the
disease in the UK.
In England, the death toll rose
close to 4,500 after 555 more
people died, with NHS England
saying the patients were aged
between 33 and 103.
In Northern Ireland, there
were a further seven deaths,
bringing the total there to 63,
while Wales reported 12 more
deaths for a total of 166.
In Scotland, a further two peo-
ple have died, taking the total
fatalities there to 220.
The Department of Health
revealed that the number of tests
being carried out has increased
after promises to ramp it up.
Yesterday, some 12,334 tests
were completed, up from 10,
the day before.
The figures come as Matt
Hancock revealed eight per cent
of NHS frontline staff are offChasing ventilators...Mr Hancock ‘My son died after he
was forced to work’
THE mother of a nurse who died
while caring for coronavirus
patients claimed her ill son was
forced to remain at work because
the hospital was short staffed.
Gina Gustilo said her son John
Alagos, 23, became ill while on a
12-hour shift at Watford General
Hospital but was allegedly not
allowed to go home because of a
lack of staff.
John is feared to have contracted
Covid-19 after he collapsed and
died at his home in Watford on
Friday night.
He complained of a headache
and a high temperature throughout
the night before later losing
consciousness.
Gina, 50, described how she had
advised her son to take
paracetamol, but found him
unconscious and “turning blue” in
his bed moments later.
She called 999 immediately but
paramedics were unable to revive
the young nurse who did not have
underlying health conditions.
His colleagues later told his
mother how he had not been
wearing adequate protective
clothing, while battling the virus on
the frontlines.
“They wear PPE, but not totally
protective of the mouth. They wear
the normal masks,” Gina added.‘Missed greatly’...nurse John Alagos was a popular nurse at the hospital