NHS now has more SPARE critical care beds than before coronavirus, says Matt Hancock 

The NHS now has more spare critical care beds available that before the coronavirus pandemic started, Health Secretary Matt claimed today.

Fronting the daily news conference he  hailed the work done by the NHS and other organisations and businesses to boost the the ability of the health service to cope with severe cases.

But it came as the UK death toll surged past 10,000.

A further 737 people have lost their lives, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10,612 as of Easter Sunday.

Cases also hit 84,279 after an additional 5,288 were diagnosed with the infection following 18,000 new tests, down slightly from yesterday.

Speaking live on television this afternoon, Mr Hancock reached out to their families, saying: ‘Their grief is our grief and their stories will not be forgotten.’

The Health Secretary said the NHS was increasing capacity for critical care beds and said: ‘The latest figures show that in Great Britain we have 2,295 spare critical care beds, up 150 from yesterday.

 ‘Throughout this crisis with all the challenges that we’ve been dealing with, all the operational difficulties and all the logistics, we have always been able to provide the very best of care to everybody who needs it through the NHS.

‘At the start of this crisis, people said that the NHS would be overwhelmed, and we’ve seen that and we’ve seen the risk of that elsewhere but not here.

‘And that is because of the action that a huge number of people are taking and the incredible work of so many.

‘There is more spare capacity now for critical care than there was when coronavirus first hit our shores.’