I’ve been doing nights over the past week and we are starting to see some empty intensive care beds appear now, which is a promising sign that critical care admissions are going down.
There have been fewer referrals to the hospital and it’s brought a spring to all of our steps as we begin to hope that we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But while we might be closer to some kind of end for this phase, as healthcare professionals we’re extremely cautious about celebrating too soon, with the very real and high possibility of an increase in the R number, which would bring with it a second wave of infections. A forest fire isn’t under control just because you’ve stopped it from advancing.
I believe the government’s change in message to be hugely premature, willfully ambiguous, and an affront to all of us working on the frontline.
I was sleeping during the day recovering from my last night shift so I missed the VE celebrations, which I hear may have got out of hand in some places, but every day this week my commute to work has increased significantly in time as a result of the increased traffic on the road – to the point that, lockdown or no lockdown, it now feels like business as usual.