Frontline workers in the NHS will see visas extended so they can focus on fighting coronavirus
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A total of 25,150 people in the U.K. have tested positive for coronavirus. Of those hospitalized in the U.K., 1,789 have died as of 5 p.m. on March 30, the Department of Health and Social Care said today. The number of deaths has increased by 381 compared to the previous day.
The U.K. death toll, however, is likely to be higher, since the department’s figure does not include deaths outside hospitals.
The U.K.’s Home Office has announced that frontline workers in the National Health Service will see their visas extended so they can focus on fighting coronavirus. Doctors, nurses and paramedics with visas due to expire before October 1, 2020 will have them automatically extended for one year. Around 2,800 migrant workers will be granted the extension, which will also apply to their family members, the Home Office said.
The department has also lifted the restriction on the number of hours per week international student nurses and doctors are allowed to work in the NHS. And pre-registered overseas nurses will be given more time to pass their skills equivalency tests, the department announced.
Meanwhile Michael Gove said that while the rate of coronavirus testing in the UK has increased, the UK must go further and faster.
Speaking at the government’s daily update, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster said: “More NHS staff are returning to the frontline, and more testing is taking place to help those self-isolating come back, and to protect those working so hard in our hospitals and in social care. “But while the rate of testing is increasing, we must go further, faster.” He said a “critical constraint” on the ability to rapidly increase testing capacity is the availability of the chemical reagents, but that Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock were working with companies worldwide to ensure the UK gets the material needed to increase tests “of all kind”.
