Remember Aimee and Areema: England's chief nurse asks Brits to stay home
LONDON (Reuters) - England's chief nurse Ruth May made an impassioned plea to Britons at the government's daily news conference on Friday to stay at home over the coming weekend, invoking the names of two nurses who have died.
"This weekend is going to be very warm and it will be very tempting to go out and enjoy those summer rays," May said.
"But please, I ask you to remember Aimee and Areema. Please stay at home for them," she said, referring to National Health Service (NHS) nurses Aimee O'Rourke and Areema Nasreen who died after testing positive for COVID-19.
O'Rourke, 39, died on Thursday in the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Kent where she had worked as a nurse.
Nasreen, 36, died in the early hours of Friday at Walsall Manor Hospital near Birmingham, where she had worked in the acute medical unit.
"They were one of us, they were one of my profession, of the NHS family," May said.
"They were clearly remarkable women, nurses and mothers," she added in a statement.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; editing by Stephen Addison)
