Get our daily coronavirus email newsletter with all the news you need to know direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Home Secretary Priti Patel has apologised "if people think there have been PPE failings" when questioned over coronavirus deaths.

Ms Patel made the comment when a Channel Four reporter told her health workers and their families blamed the lack of PPE on mass infections and deaths, during today's Downing Street press conference.

After twice being asked whether she was sorry, she said: "I'm sorry if people feel that there have been failings, I'll be very very clear about that.

"But at the same time we are in an unprecedented global health pandemic right now.

Do you have a coronavirus story? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk

"It is inevitable that the demand and the pressures on PPE and the demand for PPE are going to be exponential. They are going to be incredibly high.

"And of course we are trying to address that as a government."

The Home Secretary has been slammed for her 'half-hearted' apology.

Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jonathan Ashworth criticised the sincerity of the apology.

He was asked on Sky News: “She (Patel) said she’s sorry, is that good enough?” to which Ashworth replied: “No, I mean it wasn’t really an apology was it? It was one of those half-hearted apologies where you use the word sorry to give the impression that you apologised, but you’re not actually in reality apologising.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

“We’ve had the doctor’s bodes, the nurses bodies, we hear stories everyday of healthcare workers on the front line forced to cut up curtains to make their own PPE, we’ve heard stories of nurses in bin liners because they couldn’t get PPE, and those nurses have now come down with coronavirus. This has been unacceptable. It has not been good enough.”

It comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed today that 19 NHS workers had died during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Government has been slammed for not providing health workers with enough personal protective equipment, putting their lives at risk as they treat patients infected with the virus.

(Image: Getty Images)

Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors' Association, previously said some of his members felt like 'lambs to the slaughter' and 'cannon fodder' because of the lack of proper clothing.

The Mirror revealed how some medics were so desperate for protection they cut up hospital curtains to use as gowns.

NHS worker Thomas Harvey, who caring for a coronavirus patient at London's Goodmayes Hospital but did not have any PPE, died after reportedly catching the disease.

(Image: GoFundMe)

The dad-of-seven passed away in self-isolation at home and police officers had to break down a door to retrieve his body.

The 57-year-old had spent weeks "fighting for his life" after developing symptoms including a cough, shortness of breath, weakness, and aches and pains all over his body.

He wasn't given personal protective equipment (PPE) such as a mask at work, and he didn't know if he was infected with coronavirus because he wasn't given a test, claims longtime friend and colleague of his who did not wish to be named.

She believes his death could have been prevented had he been given a Covid-19 test immediately and hospitalised for treatment.

A former colleague, who set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his grief-stricken family, told Mirror Online: "Thomas was infected by one of the patients that was brought in.

"They did a test on the patient and it came back positive. It was Thomas who looked after this patient.

"He wasn’t provided with any protective clothing to wear."

However, earlier today Mr Hancock said he did not know of any link between a lack of PPE and the deaths of 19 NHS workers.