Coronavirus: Uber offers NHS staff 200,000 free trips and 100,000 free meals

Uber (UBER) has just announced that it is giving 200,000 free rides as well as 100,000 free meals through Uber Eats for National Health Service (NHS) and Health and Social Care (HSC) staff.

The ride-hailing giant said in a statement that it will provide 200,000 free rides to and from work, booked from a valid NHS or HSC email address, and will work with thousands of restaurants and convenience stores to deliver a hot meal from a local restaurant, or essential items from a nearby shop, to be delivered to their home or even the ward.

Details of how NHS and HSC staff can claim these free services can check it out here.

The UK is currently in a lockdown, meaning only key workers are allowed to leave their homes for work.

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Over the weekend, the UK government delivered the first round of free food boxes to those most at risk from coronavirus, in an operation that “has not been seen since the Second World War.”

Whitehall confirmed in a statement that the first 2,000 of 50,000 free food boxes, which contain essential supplies and household items such as pasta and tinned goods, will be delivered this weekend.

“This weekend sees the start of extraordinary steps to support the most clinically vulnerable, while they shield from coronavirus,” said communities secretary, Robert Jenrick MP in a statement.