In light of the recent Covid-19 Inquiry report, a then contact tracer volunteer recalls her personal experience on how the community stepped in where formal pandemic support fell short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judy Stewart, 78, a retired Health Promotion Specialist, was a community contact tracer from April 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic; also helping organise community PPE and mask production for Sheffield care homes and NHS staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was part of a wider volunteer community initiative, Sheffield Community Contact Tracers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her involvement, the initiative evolved and her role grew from contacting affected individuals, to making and distributing masks to providing \u2018shopping on doorsteps\u2019 for those isolating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stewart said that due to the limited availability of PPE, volunteers \u2018produced thousands of masks\u2019 from local donations using \u2018old sheets or duvet covers\u2026anything to make masks and scrubs\u2019,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mask\u2019s effectiveness was assessed by available information at the time; they \u2018had to work with what we had.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stewart spoke on the limited national guidance on protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stated: \u201cHospital staff didn’t know the details of how long they might need to isolate and how they could do it in families, so we were helping them there as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was general ignorance everywhere\u2026 no understanding of what didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stewart emphasised that \u2018nurses were wearing PPE in hospital when patients were coming in\u2019 but within communal spaces, where \u2018they were chatting with coffee\u2019, they didn\u2019t wear PPE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National isolation guidance was not realistic without financial support following it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She emphasised the financial pressure care home and hospital staff were under to keep working: \u201cStaff were worried about losing their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were not being supported by their managers who themselves were worried about the financial implications of not having staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHospital staff were being told that they had to come into work anyway, because there was nobody to replace them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stretching outside the care sector, Stewart remembered she once contacted a taxi driver asking if he wanted to know if he had been in contact with someone who might have Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stewart said: \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to know. He was gonna carry on. Why? Because he needed the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In light of the recent Covid-19 Inquiry report, a then contact tracer volunteer recalls her personal experience on how the community stepped in where formal pandemic support fell short. Judy Stewart, 78, a retired Health Promotion Specialist, was a community contact tracer from April 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic; also helping organise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":5803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[575,576,577,580,588,581],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story","category-live-news","category-live-news-top-story","category-news","category-news-sheffield","category-news-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\n