Britain’s interior minister said on Saturday she was sorry if health workers felt there had been failings to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to the front line.
Doctors and nurses have complained that there have been PPE shortages for frontline staff and when asked directly if she would apologize for this, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “I am sorry if people feel there have been failings.”
“It is inevitable that the demand and pressures on PPE and the demand for PPE are going to be exponential, they are going to be incredibly high,” she said.
Britain’s Covid-19 death toll neared 10,000 on Saturday after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths, while one senior minister said Prime Minister Boris Johnson will need time off as he recovers from being seriously ill with the virus.
Britain has now reported 9,875 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the fifth highest national number globally. Saturday’s increase was the second day running that the number of deaths had increased by more than 900.
Almost 80,000 people in Britain have tested positive for the virus, among them Johnson, who is in the early stages of recovery on a hospital ward after spending three nights in intensive care.
Foreign minister Dominic Raab is currently deputizing for the prime minister.
The government’s main focus in recent days has been trying to ensure Britons comply with stay-home orders and a ban on social gatherings, especially over a sunny Easter weekend.
Police said only a small minority of people were ignoring the message and early data showed officers in England and Wales had issued 1,084 on-the-spot fines so far for people breaking the restrictions. Police powers to enforce came in on March 26 - after the start of lockdown measures.