The video will start in 8 Cancel

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

A nurse was spat at and called a "virus spreader" by a vile thug in one of many attacks against healthcare workers on the frontline of the coronavirus fight.

Care manager Amy Hall, 28, was wearing her uniform when a "middle-aged man" targeted her outside a Lidl in Waterlooville, Hampshire.

Ms Hall, who works for Verina Daly Care, was shocked and continued walking into the shop, where she was buying Mother's Day flowers for her mum, as witnesses confronted the thug.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said healthcare and emergency workers are facing daily coronavirus-related attacks, with many being deliberately coughed or spat at or verbally abused.

Have you been affected by coronavirus? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.

(Image: ITV)

Recalling the attack against her on March 21, Ms Hall told ITV News: "I was walking through the car park and a middle-aged man tried to spit at me.

"He didn’t get me, but he tried to spit at me and said that I was a 'virus spreader', which obviously shocked me a little bit."

She added: "Being in my uniform, I didn’t really engage much in that conversation, but a few other people did come over and speak to that man and I carried on and went into the store."

In recent days, there have been reports of people deliberately coughing at paramedics, police officers and supermarket staff.

Earlier this week, Mirror Online told how a carer was mugged at a bus stop while she was wearing her uniform on her way to work.

Thugs have slashed the tyres of ambulances and vandalised cars belonging to NHS workers.

A nurse's bicycle was stolen and she was given a replacement by police.

And there have been several reports of people verbally abusing healthcare and emergency workers, and staff at the few remaining shops left open during the lockdown, including chemists and supermarkets.

Overall crime has plummeted during the lockdown, but reports of anti-social behaviour in the last four weeks were 59 per cent higher than the same period last year, new figures have revealed.

The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said 178,000 incidents were reported in England and Wales.

The increase was likely linked to breaches of lockdown measures, the NPCC said.

More than 3,200 fines were issued in England.

Reports of crime fell by 28 per cent in the four weeks to April 12.

Rape and burglary allegations were down 37 per cent.

Assaults against emergency and essential workers is at the same level as it was before the lockdown began.

Max Hill QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told ITV News that 50 assaults on emergency workers were being prosecuted every day in 2019.

He is still seeing the same frequency in 2020, he added.