Nurse Aimee O’Rourke, 39, passed away after being treated at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Kent (Picture: PA/GoFundMe)

Two nurses and two healthcare assistants have lost their lives in the past 24 hours while working on the UK coronavirus frontline.

Matt Hancock announced the tragic news on Friday, saying Covid-19 ‘continues its grim march’ but ‘every life lost makes me more determined than ever to push for victory’.

The NHS’s chief nursing officer Ruth May also paid tribute to the medics who have given up their lives, but added that she is concerned the fallen heroes will not be the last to die.

Ms May urged the public to shun sunny weather this weekend and stay home to honour the memories of nurses Areema Nasreen and Aimee O’Rourke, who were both mothers-of-three in their 30s.


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Aimee O’Rourke, 39, has been described as an ‘angel’ by her daughter (Picture: GoFundMe)

Speaking at a Downing Street briefing, Ms May said: ‘This weekend is going to be very warm and it will be very tempting to go out and enjoy those summer rays. But please, I ask you to remember Aimee and Areema. Please stay at home for them.’



She added: ‘They were one of us, they were one of my profession, of the NHS family.

‘I worry that there’s going to be more and I want to honour them today and recognise their service.’

It comes after the chief executive of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said more deaths among NHS staff are ‘a certainty’.

Speaking during a webinar of regional civic, health and transport chiefs on Friday, Toby Lewis said: ‘Will more health care workers pass away?

‘With the greatest regret I think that is a certainty. It is our collective effort to try and minimise the number of tragedies we see in people who serve within the NHS.’

Nurse Areema Nasreen, 36, died at Walsall Manor Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning after contracting Covid-19.

The mum-of-three, who worked at the hospital for 16 years, has been described by friend Rubi Aktar as ‘the most loveliest, genuine person you could ever meet’ who ‘went above and beyond for everyone she met’.

Nurse Aimee O’Rourke, 39, also a mother-of-three, passed away after being treated at The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Kent where she worked.

One of her daughters, Megan Murphy, said in a post on Facebook: ‘It was us 4 against the world! Now us 3 will pull together more than ever!!!

Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May speaks during a Covid-19 Digital Press Conference in 10 Downing Street in London, Britain April 3, 2020 (Picture: via Reuters)

An ambulance leaves the NHS Nightingale Hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues (Picture: Reuters)

‘Look at all the lives you looked after and all the families you comforted when patients passed away.

‘You are an angel and you will wear your NHS crown forever more because you earned that crown the very first day you started!!!’

‘Your Meggy misses you beyond belief. One day when I have children of my own I will tell your grandchildren about their GG (glamorous gran) which you wanted to be called, every single day.’

Other NHS staff to die on the coronavirus frontline include ‘living legend’ Dr Saadu, who had become medical director at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex and Ealing NHS Trust and Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, who was a GP in Leigh-on-Sea for more than 45 years.

Nurse Thomas Harvey from Hackney, London, Consultant Amged El-Hawrani, 55, of Burton and surgeon Dr Adil El Tayar, 63, of Hereford have also sacrificed their lives in the UK’s battle against coronavirus.



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