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Frontline diaries: 'Cherish the moments you have with your family'

<span>Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer</span>
Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Ed Cross, delivery driver, Whitby, North Yorkshire


Monday

All of us are taking extra precautions. We don’t knock on doors and hand parcels over. If we can, we avoid all contact. Many couriers know the safe places where customers are happy for us to leave packages. If it needs a signature we knock, put the parcel down and step right back.

Tuesday

Some might feel we shouldn’t be out delivering packages but we are keeping people supplied with what they need. Normally you don’t find out what’s in the parcels but customers have started telling us. I’ve been delivering to some families in Whitby for years and this is the first time I’ve actually spoken to them.

Wednesday

Some drivers are reporting peak volumes like they usually see at Christmas. I delivered a pair of warm joggers to an 82-year-old lady. She was worried about her heating bills going up with all the time she was spending indoors. I delivered some toys to a mother stuck at home. She told me I had saved her life because her kids were driving her up the wall.

Thursday

Rishi Sunak offers to cover 80% of the average monthly earnings for the self-employed. Then we get a real fright when Next announces that it will not be taking any more orders. If other suppliers close too, our jobs could be at risk. We are paid per parcel. If you are doing 100 parcels a day, that’s, say, £100 a day – but if a major client shuts down then you might only deliver 50.

Friday

Today I only had 45 parcels. Normally it’s 70 to 80 – it has almost halved. There are couriers who will be on the breadline if they lose work.


Steve Avery, supermarket worker, Essex

Monday

For the last few weeks I’ve been coming into contact with hundreds of people each day at work. It makes me feel apprehensive and worries my wife. We’ve had lots of people abusing staff and panic-buying. I spend the evening hoping everything will get a bit calmer during the lockdown.

Tuesday

When I arrive at work at 5.40am there is already a queue of between 100 and 200 people outside. I spend most of the day restocking the shelves. People are still pushing past me or leaning across me to get something on the shelf, rather than waiting for me to move out of their way.

Wednesday

I am on the till. A couple of people exceed the amount they are allowed to buy, and when I tell them, they swear at me. Abuse towards shop workers is quite prevalent in general, and it’s getting worse due to the outbreak.

Thursday

There are fewer gaps on the shelves, and the shop is quieter. It is the first day I feel the message about staying in is slowly starting to get through. But then I see couples still bringing their kids into the shop. Surely one of them could stay at home with their children while the other goes shopping.

Friday

An elderly gentleman is told he needs to stand behind the line while packing his shopping. He makes comments like, “Oh, who makes these stupid bloody rules?” But then a man comes up and says he wants to thank us all for what we are doing. When you get one customer like that, you can forget about five of the abusers.

(Anonymous) emergency medicine registrar, London hospital

Doctors are getting to grips with new guidance.
Doctors are getting to grips with new guidance. Photograph: Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images

Monday

This disease targets everyone, of all ages. I’ve seen patients in their 30s really sick with the heart complications you get with Covid-19, and fit and well patients in their 40s and 50s who are very sick. People are kidding themselves if they think they’re safe. So it was weird, before the lockdown, seeing the streets completely packed.

Tuesday

Still seeing people on my way to work ignoring the lockdown blew my mind. The big challenge with managing Covid-19 patients is that it’s not obvious when they’re deteriorating. That’s heartbreaking. Patients seem blissfully unaware they may be about to die.

Wednesday

I have the day off, which I spend reading guidance on the disease and listening to a podcast for non-intensive-care doctors about how to, for example, manage a ventilator. I want to be good at my job in the months ahead and aware of every possible challenge I am likely to encounter.

Thursday

Back at work. I have asthma, and my personal protective equipment is just a plastic gown, a pair of gloves and a surgical mask. It’s pretty alarming going in to see a patient who’s coughing their lungs out, and all you’ve got is a piece of paper over your mouth. But Public Health England says that’s all I need. I have got to trust that recommendation, and I do.

Friday

I arrive at work for a night shift. More than 10 people with Covid-19 symptoms are waiting for beds. They all have an oxygen requirement. It gets busy but we remain in control throughout. I have confidence in our ability to manage this. My advice to people is: cherish the moments you have with your family. Because if you die from this, you die alone.