A nurse has died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, came to London from Hong Kong in the 1970s, and worked for the NHS for 44 years until she fell ill two weeks ago.

Alice passed away on Tuesday after she was moved into intensive care at the Royal Free Hospital.

According to the Guardian, Alice was working as a practice nurse at Colindale Medical Centre as well as at Greenfield Medical Centre in Cricklewood.

Following her mother's death, Melissa Ong has called for the public to value the health service just like her mother did.

Melissa, 36, described her mother as a "wonderful woman" who was "generous to everyone else before herself".

She told the PA news agency: "She loved her job... that was her life... she loved the NHS.

"My mother came here from Hong Kong to work for the NHS because she believed it was the best in the world.

"It's only now people are kind of realising the strength of the NHS... You see people clapping on the streets, but it shouldn't take something like this to bring the nation together to be thankful.

"We should value healthcare workers in good times and bad times."

Times Series:

Alice holding her daughter Melissa when she was a child. Credit: Melissa Ong/PA

Alice, who began her career as a midwife, was working full time at two surgeries and also holding baby clinics before falling ill the day after Boris Johnson announced the UK-wide lockdown.

The illness began with Alice feeling tired and "unusually" going to bed early, but Melissa said things worsened from there and she was taken to hospital by ambulance in the days that followed.

Melissa said the public needs to take Covid-19 seriously and abide by lockdown rules, warning "it can affect anyone" regardless of their perceived strength.

"People just need to realise how dangerous this thing is," she said.

"She was strong... she didn't really have any underlying health conditions.

"Everyone who knew her thought she would pull through because she's a strong woman, even though she was 70, but there's no saying how the illness will take hold."

Along with her other work, Alice was also an expert on diabetes and studied at the University of Hertfordshire in her 60s to hone her knowledge of diabetic care.

Melissa added: "One of the GPs she was working for said he has been inundated with messages from patients and other NHS professionals that she has met over the years."

The number of patients in England who have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus currently stands at 6,483 - a rise of 828 from the figure announced on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, the government had identified 717 positive cases of Covid-19 in the borough of Barnet.

This is the second highest number of cases in London by borough, only behind Brent which has 819 confirmed cases.