Corona Diaries

Isla

“How will Covid-19 impact us on being approved for fostering and the wellbeing of ourselves?”

Background information

Female, Aged 34-44, Works in Enforcing Measures to Protect Public Health, Heterosexual, Married

to Husband Jason, one foster child

March- First Diary Entry

Current travel restrictions – anyone coming into Guernsey (Guernsey, Alderney, Herm & Sark) is required

to self-isolate for 14 days (legally enforceable). We have cancelled several off-island trips including my

mother-in-law coming to visit, my dad coming for a football tour and a weekend in Vienna for our wedding

anniversary.

States of Guernsey announce school closures to come into effect on 23rd March. Will remain open for

children of key workers.

States of Guernsey announced pub and bar closure, but restaurants can remain open. People can only be

served alcohol if seated at tables and consuming food. States owned leisure centre remains open.

Have had a slight cough for around 3 weeks so despite going to work in the morning decided to work from

home this afternoon. Lots of discussion on who constitutes a key worker and whether the Guernsey advice

will differ from that of the UK. Messages between colleagues in the UK and us, their Local Authorities are

trying to declare that all their staff members are key workers. Had a quick supermarket shop to Waitrose

and we were able to get everything we wanted – there has to date been limited impact on our supply

chains. Rumours are circulating in relation to the hospitality sector and various hotels closing / sending staff

home, which presents economic issues as well as travel problems as a lot of our hospitality staff are not

Guernsey residents. Jason (my husband) has been self-isolating this week – the requirement in Guernsey

is currently different to that of the UK and this has not restricted my movements. We have this week also

been approved as foster carers and do not know whether the virus will have an impact on when we may get

a placement.

Jason and I did a bit of gardening and took our green waste to the green waste site. Received call from a

colleague asking for assistance with case interviews and contact tracing. Worked between 11:30 and

17:00. Had a quiet night in.

Went to work at 10:00 to continue contact tracing. Left at 13:00 and had an afternoon with Jason in the

garden and pottering at home.

I went to work, Jason worked from home. Less traffic on roads. Had to do a job in town – noticeably quiet

and many shops either shut or restricting access. Stopped at M&S on my way back to the office. Had to

queue to get in and was asked to use hand sanitiser on entry. Cashiers using hand sanitiser between

each customer and they were markers on the floor to ensure social distancing. It was quiet at work,

but I still had to attend a drainage complaint. Had conversations in the office about reapproaching

complainants and perpetrators and how best to do this. Notified that Herm are closing the island – no boats

in or out at all. My manager messaged me in the evening to let me know that our assistance would be

required to carry out more case interviews and contact tracing in the morning.

I had some noise equipment that had to be removed from a property, so I went with a colleague and did

this first thing. The complainants who had the equipment installed informed me that they were self-

isolating, but they did not accompany me and left the door on the latch. Assisted Public Health with contact

tracing between 10am and 4.30 pm.

Jason had been advised to continue working from home and not to return to his office. There were also

rumours speculating about States of Guernsey staff being advised that they would be working from home

after today.

We went for a walk after work and stocked up on weeds to feed our pet tortoises!

Jason and I both received text messages from the States of Guernsey advising that there would be a

broadcast by the Chief Minister at 7pm. We watched the broadcast live which it was announced that from

00.01 on 25th March the island would be in lock down. People would only be able to leave their homes for

one of four reasons:

• Shopping for basic necessities

• Any medical need

• One form of daily exercise (for 2 hours)

• Travelling to and from work for critical workers only

Worked from home.

Assisted Public Health.

Worked from home.

Whoop!!! DAY OFF! I did nothing! Jason did a lot in the garden and I helped for about an

hour! Theo messaged to say Public Health would like us all in tomorrow.

I was at public health between 9am and 3:30pm – all contact tracing

I was at public health from 10am – 17:20pm two case interviews and lots of contact tracing! I am starting to

lose my voice. I’m finding the work quite draining, it’s pretty tough constantly telling people they have been

exposed to the virus and speaking to those who have tested positive. It is clear that the virus is impacting

people very differently. Some cases have a slight cough, others are extremely unwell. Diarrhoea appears to

be reported more frequently as a symptom and I expect amendments will be made to the relevant forms

being used by Public Health to reflect this.

Morning off! Boss’ orders! First Guernsey death announced. Worked from home in the afternoon.

April 2020

Friday 3rd April – Annual leave

Saturday 4th April – Public Health all day

Today is our wedding anniversary. Jason began feeling unwell, fortunately we managed to get the spare

TV down from the loft and set up the front spare room in our house for him to self-isolate in. It was strange

and not very nice having to separate from each other. Jason started with a fever and was very

lethargic. He was also very dehydrated and although he was drinking a lot of water this was having very

little impact.

Jason had very little appetite and slept a lot. I worked from home we continued with our

separation. Fortunately, we have two bathrooms, and we developed a system of passing food and drink

over a small table at the door of the bedroom.

Jason began with a sore throat and subsequently called the doctor as he remained very dehydrated.

The doctor asked for a urine sample and arranged for him to be seen at the hospital. The specific unit he

was referred is where they are seeing any possible Covid-19 cases. Jason had to tell them our car details

and then wait in the car till they came to get him for his appointment. The doctor that Jason saw advised

that his urine sample was ok and swabbed him for the virus. He was advised that the results would be likely

to be received on Thursday.

Jason’s symptoms continued to worsen. He has eaten very little since Sunday evening and I was beginning

to get quite worried. It is very difficult to not get too worried, even though I consider myself fairly

uninfluenced.

Jason began coughing.

Good Friday Public Health all day.

Jason was very unwell and called the doctor again. They agreed for him to visit the hospital again where a

GP took further nasal and throat swabs. The GP couldn’t believe that Jason had tested negative.

Jason’s result was negative again!

Today we had quiz night with Stephen and Julia, too much rum, sun burn!

I went for a walk with my friend Ellie – down to the seafront and along to the bathing pools and castle. I

enjoyed having a catch up. As Ellie lives alone, she is able to exercise with people outside of her

household. She told me that she feels that she has it relatively easy as can see numerous friends due to

this policy.

I worked from home all day, I was in the kitchen and Jason in the living room. It was ok but our kitchen gets

a bit cold. I managed to achieve a bit, but it was not on my side today. I couldn’t access our database at

any point, and we rely on this for logging all our work. It was very frustrating. We went for a long walk at

around 16:30 – decided to walk west from or house which we rarely do but it was nice, and we enjoyed

being out for a bit.

I had to go into the office for a socially distanced meeting with my manager and two of my colleagues. The

meeting was to discuss how we will be dealing with businesses, who are currently considered to be non-

essential and who want to open when the next phase of lockdown is introduced on Saturday. We prepared

some guidance for our team and discussed how calls and emails would be handled. The finalised guidance

is yet to be drafted but I am confident that we are as prepared as we can be for the next phase.