Boris Johnson says 312 NHS and care workers have died of coronavirus 

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The death toll among NHS staff has hit 181 and among care workers it is 131, Boris Johnson revealed today.

Mr Johnson gave the latest grim figures as he took PMQs in the House of Commons this afternoon. 

He said the deaths had ‘sadly been reported involving Covid-19’.  

‘I know the thoughts of the whole House are with their families and friends,’ he said. 

Today’s announcement came as tributes flooded in for the two most recent healthcare workers known to have died after contracting Covid-19.

Mr Johnson gave the latest grim figures as he took PMQs in the House of Commons this afternoon

Mr Johnson was taking the last PMQs before the Commons goes into recess for nearly a fortnight - despite the crisis engulfing the country

Mr Johnson was taking the last PMQs before the Commons goes into recess for nearly a fortnight – despite the crisis engulfing the country

Carlos Sia, who worked for the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, died on Friday, May 15, in the hospital where he worked.  

The ‘much-loved’ 62-year-old, who had worked for the trust for five years, had spent several weeks in intensive care.

Coronavirus spreads ‘like wildfire’ through hospital ward, infecting 36 people 

A coronavirus outbreak has swept through a hospital ward ‘life wildfire’, with 36 people known to be infected.

A total of 26 staff and 10 patients at University Hospital Ayr are known to have contacted Covid-19.

The outbreak was in the hospital’s Section Six ward, which is not connected with treating the virus.  

Bosses at the affected ward say it is now back running normally after new anti-infection measures were introduced. 

Dr Crawford McGuffie, Medical Director of NHS Ayrshire, the trust which runs the hospital, said outbreaks can happen because some people have no symptoms. 

He said: ‘NHS Ayrshire and Arran has robust processes in place to manage cases of COVID-19 amongst patients and staff to reduce the risk of outbreaks developing.

‘Due to the nature of the incubation period, the fact that individuals can spread the virus before they have become symptomatic, and the fact that high numbers of people experience very mild symptoms, outbreaks of COVID-19 will remain an ongoing risk in healthcare as long as the virus is circulating in the wider community.

‘Appropriate infection prevention and control measures, including hand hygiene, social distancing and PPE are all important in reducing this risk.

‘When outbreaks occur, we respond promptly to minimise the risk.’ 

Mr McGuffie added: ‘Further appropriate infection prevention and control measures were implemented and affected patients and their families were informed of the outbreak.

‘The ward has now returned to normal working.’ 

He has a wife and daughter in the UK, and three sons living in the Philippines.

In a letter to staff, chief executive Matthew Hopkins said: ‘His quiet, gentle and respectful nature, his generosity of spirit, his sense of humour and his calming influence also made him popular with patients.

‘We have lost a valued member of our Trust family – and in Carlos’s case, the word ‘family’ has a special relevance as his wife Cindy works on Avon 2 as a healthcare assistant and his daughter Clair is a nurse on our acute stroke unit.

‘Cindy and Clair are particularly in our thoughts at this sad time, as are all Carlos’s colleagues who worked alongside him and those who cared for him through his illness.’ 

Tributes have also been paid to Neil Ruch, the first paramedic from the East of England Ambulance Service to lose his life to Covid-19.  

The ‘fantastic’ paramedic had been battling coronavirus for a number of weeks and had been on a ventilator in intensive care at Basildon Hospital since last month.

Mr Ruch, who previously worked for the London Ambulance Service, died on Monday.

He had been worked for the East of England Ambulance Service for the past seven years and was based at Basildon ambulance station in Essex.  

A statement on the Essex Medical Training Facebook page gave a heartbreaking tribute to the hero paramedic.

It said: ‘Every day heroes, who are stepping out of the comfort zone, donning PPE & making a huge difference on the front line.

‘One such hero has unfortunately made the ultimate sacrifice. Whilst dedicating his career to providing life saving treatment, Neil Ruch contracted Covid-19 and after a long battle, has sadly died.

‘Neil was a fantastic paramedic, a kind, gentle soul, treasured by all that new him.’

The latest figures were announced as Mr Johnson engaged in bruising clashes with Labour’s Keir Starmer over the handling of the crisis in care homes. 

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland sparked fury earlier by admitting that ministers ‘chose’ to protect the NHS over care homes because there was not enough coronavirus testing capacity. 

Mr Buckland gave the clearest statement yet that a decision was made to prioritise the health service when the outbreak was at its most ferocious.

More than 11,000 people are now believed to have died in care homes since the disease started running rampant, around a quarter of the UK’s total toll. The government has been heavily criticised for sending patients back to homes from hospitals without tests, and not putting routine screening in place for staff and residents. 

Mr Buckland fuelled the row this morning by conceding the government had to make a ‘choice’ about where to deploy testing capacity – which was languishing at a few thousand a day in early March, although it has now been ramped up to over 100,000. 

‘I think we needed to make a choice about testing and we did decide to focus upon the NHS,’ he told Sky News. ‘The issue with care homes is that we’ve got many thousands of different providers, different settings, there have been lots of examples of care homes that have mercifully stayed infection free, but sadly far too many cases of infection and then death.’ 

Shadow care minister Liz Kendall said the remarks amounted to a concession that ‘ministers did not give care homes the protection they needed at the start of this pandemic’.

The details emerged as Mr Johnson engaged in bruising clashes with Labour's Keir Starmer (pictured) over the handling of the crisis in care homes

The details emerged as Mr Johnson engaged in bruising clashes with Labour’s Keir Starmer (pictured) over the handling of the crisis in care homes

Mr Buckland fuelled the row this morning by conceding the government had to make a 'choice' about where to deploy testing capacity - which was languishing at a few thousand a day in early March, although it has now been ramped up to over 100,000

Mr Buckland fuelled the row this morning by conceding the government had to make a ‘choice’ about where to deploy testing capacity – which was languishing at a few thousand a day in early March, although it has now been ramped up to over 100,000

‘Social care and the NHS are both equally important in the fight against this virus and are inextricably linked. One cannot be prioritised above the other,’ she said. 

Care England chief Martin Green said it was a ‘significant’ statement from Mr Buckland and he hoped the government will ‘learn lessons’. 

The spat came after Dame Angela McLean, chief science adviser at the Ministry of Defence, highlighted the role capacity had played in key decisions at the daily media briefing last night.

Dame Angela said the advice given to ministers to abandon efforts to contact trade individual cases, which happened on March 12, ‘took account of the testing that was available’. 

‘With the testing we had the right thing to do was to focus it on people who were really sick in hospital… it was the right thing to do at the time,’ she said. 

She said the ‘scientific advice would be that you need to have a rapid and reliable testing system’. Asked if that was now true, Dame Angela replied: ‘I think it is getting better.’