Coronavirus FRONTLINE TO IN VIRUS CRISIS
like doctors and nurses and other people that care for us but we still need everything in the background to be kept going.
“We have to make the sure we are doing work in the background because at some point this will be over and we need to build things up.”
Neil Davies, 46, from Maesteg, is the head of home safety and the fire crime unit in the community safety and partnerships department at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
As a tactical officer, he responds to a range of incidents but during the Covid-19 pandemic, he has been attending the command room to assist with ensuring frontline crews have sufficient resources to undertake their role safely.
Neil said: “It’s very important we are able to still provide a version of our risk reduction activities for the very most vulnerable members of our community, because during the current climate, we will still attend emergencies such as property fires and road traffic collisions where people’s lives will be at risk.
“We must continue to deliver these activities to raise awareness and reduce risk across South Wales. These are worrying times for the world in general.
“On a personal note I have a number of family members who are considered to be in the at risk category so I have to be responsible and socially distance myself from them for the foreseeable future, which is going to be difficult as I will miss them.
“I am however keeping in touch by video and telephone calling like many other families.”
When asked about what main advice he would give people, Neil said it would be to stay home and follow government guidance to the best of your ability and to stay safe.
He added: “In these challenging times whether you are home working, self-isolating or social distancing, we know you’ll probably be spending more time at home over the next few weeks.
“This could increase the chances of you having a fire in your home. We would encourage members of the public to ensure their and our continued safety.
“I’d also like to add, deliberate fires put our firefighters lives in danger, pose risk to the community and can cause significant damage to property and the environment.
“False alarms and deliberate fires are a considerable drain on our resources under normal circumstances so as you can imagine attending these unnecessary calls are even more challenging during these times.”
One of the people helping us get essential groceries is Gareth Robert Hutt, 32, who is the manager at Pontypridd’s the Bunch of Grapes.
He has been working hard to ensure people in the community have access to fresh fruit and vegetables.
After the pub was forced to close, the team started working with their supplier to supply boxes of produce to customers, who pick them up from the pub.
Gareth said: “The idea came about out of circumstance and necessity I guess. Mattfresh is our supplier of fruit and vegetables – one of our most steadfast suppliers for many years. Naturally, he began to lose trade recently – up to 90% before pubs and restaurants were shut.
“Mattfresh then decided to start offering vegetable boxes for home delivery but as they only have a small number of vans, it seemed there was no way this would provide much of an income to help anything.
“The owner of the pub, Nick Otley, had the idea that we could offer the Bunch of Grapes as a collection point for customers.
“Once the pubs were shut, it seemed even more important then that we were still able to offer this service where people could collect a big box of fresh fruit and vegetables, without having to come in to contact with anybody.”
When customers collect the food there is a barrier between them and staff to ensure a 2m gap is kept.
All of the boxes are paid for by card before arrival, and staff arrange collection times to ensure only one customer arrives at once.
Gareth said: “As a small independent business who are responsible to a fair amount of staff, we are navigating a very fluid situation.
“Although the Government’s initial treatment of the hospitality industry in this was confused to begin with, the chancellor’s financial announcements will be of great help.”
He added: “Pubs and restaurants across the country have moved with incredible speed to adapt their skills and supply chains so that they can offer help to their communities.
“I’d very much say ours seems to be one story in a collective effort across the country.”
Last, but not least, are the people working to ensure all of the other key workers can actually get to work.
Chris Edwards, who is more commonly known as the “singing conductor” on Transport for Wales trains, is one of these people.
Even though social distancing measures have been put in place, the 57-year-old, from Newport, is still doing his job to the best of his ability.
“The key workers need to go to work,” he explained. “We are in the job to get them where they need to be. There are a lot more British Transport Police assisting to stop people travelling because of the pictures of people going to the beach and so on. This has helped people be at the right place at the right time.”
Chris said he has to maintain a good balance when working – not getting too close to passengers but also making sure they receive all the information they need to know where to go if they need help.
Chris said: “It’s not without risks. These are not things we would see usually to be honest so I’m just happy to help.”
And, in case you started to worry about it, you’ll be glad to know Chris is still singing during his journeys.
He said it’s important he conveys serious information properly but there’s a method of doing it in a lighthearted way.
Chris added: “I haven’t stopped singing. I have a coronavirus song – I sing it to the tune of Feed the World.
“It’s important people can ask for help – it’s about getting the balance right. We are going to carry on working with the government and British Transport Police and work as closely as possible.
“This is about a team effort. Everyone has to work together – together we’ll make this work.”
COUPLES TORN APART BY VIRUS – PAGE 9
WITH coronavirus cases rising continuing to rise across Wales, we all still have plenty of questions.
From how you can actually catch Covid-19 to if we can become immune, there’s still a lot to know about the potentially deadly disease. But with so many questions and a growing amount of misinformation online, we decided to ask an expert.
Dr Richard Stanton works in the infection and immunity division at Cardiff University’s School of Medicine. We put several of your questions to him.
Are you immune once you catch Covid-19?
The short answer is that we don’t know. However, we can look at related coronaviruses, and see whether we’re immune to those once we catch them.
In those cases we are immune immediately after catching them, but we don’t keep that immunity for a long time – exactly how long depends on the particular virus, but it’s usually around
12-24 months. It’s reasonable to expect this virus to be similar, but we won’t know until we’ve had a chance to test people properly.
Can Covid-19 live in the air and can you catch it this way?
People who have the coronavirus can breathe/cough/sneeze it out in little droplets of water. These droplets stay in the air for a couple of meters, before dropping to the floor – this is why people are being told to stay two meters apart.
Could it mutate every winter like the flu and become a seasonal problem or a longterm problem?
It’s certainly possible that it will become a seasonal problem in the same way that the flu is. Flu can mutate dramatically from year to year, which is why we have to have a different vaccine each year. It’s likely that coronavirus won’t quite mutate as much as flu, which may mean we can get away with keeping the same vaccine for a several years (once we have one).
Should we disinfect objects others have touched, like delivered groceries?
The virus can live for anything from hours to days on surfaces – the exact time depends on the surface. So there is a potential risk from anything that someone else has touched. The best way to prevent this causing problems is to wash your hands regularly.
Do we have an antibody test to see who has had the virus and if not will one be ready soon? Several such tests have been made, and the government has bought some. However, they need to be tested, to make sure that they give accurate results – a test that gives a wrong result is worse than no test at all.
Are symptoms changing? Reports say some people now lose their sense of smell. This isn’t that the symptoms are changing, it’s just that we’re becoming aware of some symptoms that we weren’t aware of originally.