The Sixth Day: 28 March 2020 (17,089 confirmed infected, 1,019 died, in total)

" This disease is horrible and is going to cause more heartbreak for many more families for weeks to come." – Dr Hisham El Khidir

This is a terrifying day. BBC reported the first death of a working NHS surgeon in the UK. It was all the same to the situation in China several weeks ago, where doctors and nurses began to get infected and die. They were closest to death. They sacrificed themselves to protect the others behind, just like soldiers in the real battlefield.

But the case in the UK may be even worse. From TV reports on frontline medical staff we can see that most of them are not so well protected – with only surgical masks and ordinary gowns and gloves.

The virus this time, as announced by Chinese medical experts and the World Health Organization, is highly contagious through the spread of droplets and aerosol in addition to physical contact. So, hospitals become an “ideal” place for the virus to spread if good protection is not in place.

The well-supplied medical staff in Wuhan (although not in every city in China) are wearing protective gowns and goggles, as well as one-off gloves and shoe covers, leaving no even one square inch of skin exposed in the air. By contrast, the protection measures taken on medical workers in the UK look somehow “primitive”. I am not sure whether this is due to a lack of medical supplies, or UK medical workers are confident (or neglectful) for some reasons.

An ambulance stopped at the entrance of our gated community in the afternoon. Neighbours stretched their necks behind the windows to try to find what was happening. But of course, it could not be seen whether the patient taken into the ambulance is being admitted to the hospital for the coronavirus or other diseases. Protection of privacy are always first in this country, unlike the ways in China where the government, public media and social media are making every endeavour to report the precise location of each confirmed case. The Chinese way is good for other people to know and assess the danger, and plan for a better evasion of possible infection, but it is indeed brutal and harassing, and sometimes creates discrimination towards the affected people. Again, we see a different choice of value between the East and the West.

We did not go out for the whole day. The sirens of ambulances kept lingering around our ears. These days ambulances are becoming more and more busy.

The sounds did not fade out throughout the night.