Families of frontline NHS and social care staff who die from coronavirus will each receive a £60,000 payment, Matt Hancock has announced.

The health secretary told the daily Downing Street briefing on COVID-19 that 82 NHS workers and 16 social care staff had died after contracting coronavirus so far.

He said he felt a "deep personal sense of duty that we must care for their loved ones" as he confirmed the government was setting up a life assurance scheme.

Image: The health secretary said he felt 'a deep personal sense of duty'. Pic: Guy Bell/Shutterstock

Mr Hancock said: "Families of staff who die from coronavirus in the course of their essential frontline work will receive a £60,000 payment.

"Of course, nothing replaces the loss of a loved one but we want to do everything we can to support families who are dealing with this grief."


The health secretary said the government was also looking at other frontline professions who do not have access to a life assurance scheme "to see where this may be required".

He also revealed that some NHS services which had been paused due to the coronavirus outbreak will be restored from Tuesday, starting with urgent services such as cancer care and mental health support.

Another 360 coronavirus deaths in UK hospitals were announced on Monday - the lowest daily increase in four weeks.

A total of 21,092 hospital patients have now died in the UK after testing positive for COVID-19, the Department of Health said.

It is the smallest daily rise in coronavirus deaths in UK hospitals since 30 March, when 180 deaths were confirmed.

Monday's figure is also the smallest percentage increase on the previous day to date at 1.7%.

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK is "beginning to turn the tide" in the fight against COVID-19, but he insisted it was not the time to relax the nationwide lockdown.

'If you keep going, we will beat this'

England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the country was "definitely not consistently past the peak" of coronavirus deaths.

He told the Downing Street briefing there was still a "very long way to run" as he was asked about the UK's expected death total.

The government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had suggested that keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a good outcome - but that total has been surpassed in hospitals alone.

"We need to view this epidemic over the long run and this has got a very long way to run," Prof Whitty said.

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Mr Hancock admitted the government has a "lot of work" to do to hit its target to carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests a day from Thursday.

Some 29,058 tests had been carried out in England, Scotland and Wales in the 24 hours up to 9am on Saturday.

The health secretary said the government was "broadly where we expected to be" in terms of testing capacity, saying the UK had gone past the number of tests carried out in South Korea.

Monday's Downing Street briefing was the first in which members of the public were invited to send in questions, with 15,000 submitted.

The polling company YouGov selects one issue to be put to ministers every day and the person chosen to ask a question records a video or it will be read out on their behalf.

The first chosen question was from Lynn in Skipton who asked whether being able to hug close family members will be one of the first things to be allowed when the lockdown is eased.

Prof Whitty said it will depend on "individuals' circumstances" in terms of their age and health conditions.

Meanwhile, Mr Hancock said quarantine measures for people arriving in the UK will become more important when infection levels fall.

His remarks follow reports that anyone entering the UK could be forced to go into quarantine for two weeks under plans being discussed in government.

Mr Hancock said that as the number of coronavirus cases in the UK reduces, "judgement on the measures you need at the border changes".

He added: "We will have more to say about it in due course."

The health secretary also said he was "very worried" about reports of a serious coronavirus-related syndrome developing in a small number of children and he is "looking into it closely".

Prof Whitty says it was a "very rare situation" but admitted it is "entirely plausible" it is caused by coronavirus.