Tributes have been paid to a “hard-working, dedicated and hugely popular” NHS nurse who has died after testing positive for Covid-19 – the second nurse death to be announced in England today.

Aimee O’Rourke, 39 and mother to three girls, worked in the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Kent. She died in the critical care unit there late yesterday.

“It was an honour to be able to be with her" Julie Gammon

Colleagues have described Ms O’Rourke as a nurse who was “determined to provide the best possible care to all of her patients and continued to come to work at a time when others were staying at home and inside”.

Her death was announced of the same day as that of 36-year-old nurse Areema Nasreen, who had tested positive for Covid-19.

Ms Nasreen, also a mother of three, died in the early hours of this morning at Walsall Manor Hospital in the West Midlands, where she worked as a staff nurse at an acute medical unit.

The death of Ms O’Rourke, who joined the acute medical unit at the hospital as a newly qualified nurse in 2017, has left the hospital team “devastated”, said ward manager, Julie Gammon.

Ms Gammon added: “She was such a kind and caring nurse, and she had a really special relationship with her patients and colleagues.

“Nursing was something she had always wanted to do, although she came to it relatively late after raising her girls.”

The ward manager added that Ms O’Rourke was a “really valuable part of our work family and would always offer to help if she could”.

“She was really growing and developing in her skills and confidence and I know she would have gone on to have a great career,” added Ms Gammon.

When Ms O’Rourke was first brought into the hospital with symptoms of Covid-19, she asked for Ms Gammon, who was able to sit with her in the emergency department.

“We are a work family and it is devastating to lose one of our own" Amanda Hallums

Ms Gammon said: “It was an honour to be able to be with her and to provide some comfort and I am so glad that I was able to do so.”

Amanda Hallums, chief nurse at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital in Margate, said everyone who worked alongside Ms O’Rourke was “heartbroken” over the news.

"We are a work family and it is devastating to lose one of our own," she added.

“Aimee was determined to provide the best possible care to all of her patients and continued to come to work at a time when others were staying at home and inside.”

The trust would “forever remember her smile, her concern for her patients and her colleagues, and her willingness to always go above and beyond”, added Ms Hallums.

Susan Acott, chief executive at the trust, described Ms O’Rourke as “hard-working, dedicated and hugely popular with staff and patients alike”.

“She gave her all to care for our patients and her commitment was evident for all to see,” said Ms Acott.

“She gave her all to care for our patients and her commitment was evident for all to see” Susan Acott

“On behalf of the whole trust I would like to offer our sincere condolences to her girls, whom she adored, and to all her family and friends.

“I would also like to pay tribute to our teams in the emergency department and our critical care unit who cared for Aimee with such compassion and kindness.”

A fundraising page has been set up in the nurse’s honour called ‘Aimee’s memory fund’. It has so far raised more than £8,000.

The page described Ms O’Rourke as a “beautiful woman and a valued NHS nurse”.

“Please give as much as you can to help Aimee's family, just as Aimee gave her life to make sure other people survived this virus,” it added.

In addition, a tribute Facebook page has also been set up in Ms O’Rourke’s honour and has encouraged people to light a candle at 8pm this evening in her name.

The news of the two nurse deaths comes on the same day that new duties were placed on NHS trusts in England to report cases of Covid-19 among staff, as revealed by Nursing Times.

They must now routinely report to NHS England on the number of frontline clinicians who go off sick, are hospitalised or die from the virus.

The new measures followed concerns raised by Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair over lack of data on nurse sickness and death during the pandemic.