A GP who lost his father and uncle to coronavirus within a week has described the difficulty of grieving amid social distancing.

Suthan Ulakanathan's dad Ulaganathan Subramaniam, 65, died at Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH), Bromley, on April 13, days before his younger brother Sivananthan, 56, who was treated at Lewisham Hospital.

The Hayes family has been unable to seek comfort in the traditional Hindu period of mourning, during which they would gather together and receive visitors.

Father of one Suthan, 36, said: "We are all struggling to grieve at the moment, because of the restrictions.

"You don’t have that personal touch with friends and family.

"My Dad's funeral was just a cremation, rather than the beautiful Hindu ceremony we would usually hold.

"My mum luckily is being looked after by my brother and sister.

"I can’t even begin to think how difficult it is for people to go through this without the kind of support they would normally have."

Ulaganathan, known as Nathan, came to the UK from Sri Lanka, making a career as a service engineer.

Living in Hayes for the last 17 years, he was a committed News Shopper reader.

After experiencing breathing difficulties and reduced oxygen levels, he was taken to PRUH by ambulance on April 8.

Despite responding well initially to treatment, the "fit and well" grandfather rapidly deteriorated, requiring transfer to ICU, where he died the following Monday.

Suthan suspects his father contracted coronavirus through his wife, who works as a GP practice manager.

His uncle's wife also worked in front-line health services as a domestic, cleaning hospital wards.

Neither had access to testing in March, when they may have become infectious, as the Government has only recently began to open up eligibility to NHS staff.

Suthan said: "Testing is something that could have been utilised.

"We could have known immediately if my mum had it.

"From my own experience, we wanted testing for doctors that were self-isolating very early on.

"It seems the powers above didn’t really understand how serious things were going to be."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has now said that key workers and anyone in their household will now be eligible for tests if they have symptoms of coronavirus.

A total of 19,506 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, the Department of Health said, up by 768 from 18,738 the day before.