Covid-19 Pandemic
To date there have been in excess of 129,000 deaths due to the COVID-19 virus in the United Kingdom. It is unclear when the first recorded death was but some reports put it in January 2020. New rules and regulations have been introduced in an attempt to stop further spread of the deadly virus: from working at home to a government-imposed national lockdown.
The nation is currently walking side-by-side with many other countries across the world on a journey through the unknown. As the story unfolds, these images document times gone passed as we witness a pandemic on our doorstep.
On March 23rd 2020, and with the death toll of coronavirus cases in England standing at 303, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a statement announcing a government-enforced lockdown to tackle the coronavirus outbreak - a demand of such magnitude which hasn’t been seen since the Second World War.
As the nation stayed indoors, our world was flipped upside down. We were all to enter a new world, a new existence and a new understanding of what normality was.
As the death toll rose, masks became common place, as did social distancing and a weekly appreciation for the National Health Service. All the while, families were having to figure out how to exist under the same roof for an indefinite amount of time. Concerns for mental health and wellbeing increased as families juggled full-time jobs whilst working at home added with full-time child care and home schooling.
As the number of COVID-19 related deaths carried on increasing the National Health Service became overwhelmed. Caring for patients with a virus that no one knew anything about was the biggest challenge. The fact is was attacking the lungs meant patients had to be sedated and put on artificial breathing apparatus - which in turn made the lungs become dependant on the machines. Some patients were in Intensive Care for up to 50 days, meaning a long and arduous recovery program of physiotherapy was waiting at the other end.
Many patients didn’t remember being in Intensive Care. They only spoke about horrible nightmares, hallucinations and being extremely disorientated. (Nb: the image above is two separate pictures placed on top of each other in post production.)
Once discharged from the hospital and once complete with the gruelling physiotherapy, only then may a patient be able to return home. A home to families members that they haven’t seen in, for some cases, months. But the battle doesn’t stop there both for the patient and the NHS. Continued care at home, re-dressing of wounds and the checking-up on the patients remains imperative.
