When was the moment you realised covid was serious?

[namechanged984630]

For me I think it was when it hit Italy, so early
March. Until then I really believed it'd be a storm in a tea cup like swine flu.

I remember certain songs I was listening to as I refreshed the news in early March that still give me the heebie jeebies even now.

And I remember taking my dog for a walk at some lakes a few miles away (so drove there) and wondering, on about the fifteenth of March, if it might be the last time for a while. When I was there an elderly man said to me that it was nice to get out to forget the state of the world, I'll always remember that.

I remember seeing the Wuhan hospital be built and only paying the vaguest amount of attention. So arrogant to think it wasn't a problem for us!

I realised as soon as the news started coming out of China.

There were bits in the news about china but i didn't take it seriously, we went travelling in early January through SE Asia, DS in the travel trade messaged us to say things were getting a bit tricky, flights being cancelled, borders closing and-shopping difficult to get back in uk. We were having a great trip and only noticed a few places being quieter than they would normally be, mainly in Cambodia, and a distinct lack of Chinese tourists. Only really hit us days before the trip ended when our flight home was cancelled, the panic trying to find an alternative and finally getting home the day before lockdown to a silent airport, news on tv being scary as we waited for our-bus back home, wed been fairly sheltered from tv until then and it suddenly felt like the world was ending.
The last three days of the trip were on a lake in floating bungalows chatting to lots of young people who had given up jobs to travel for a year, two weeks into a trip and hearing that uk government was telling us to get home as-soon as we could felt so sorry for them our trip was over anyway but Bangkok on the night before we flew home was basically closing down, streets being sprayed and shops closing very scary and strange atmosphere.

I was concerned that BJ hadn't locked down when the news was coming out of Italy, but I think it really hit me when I watched on the news that they were cancelling elective surgeries. I had just qualified as an ODP and I panicked, thinking they would have no where for me to go. I walked in to a different place that I had trained in. We were fit tested, which we'd done before for flu and measles, but this time it felt like it really mattered. There were doors put on the ITU / A&E resus bays, rather than curtains. We had to help each other don and doff and we were showering after every case.

@Pissinthepottyplease and @XDownwiththissortofthingX

My DD and DS were very ill with something (don't officially know what) in November of 2019.

My daughter coughed every single second for more than 48 hours. I was terrified for her. GP refused to see her. A neighbour lent me her oximeter and her oxygen was down to 89/90 (her lips were blue) that stat got us an emergency out of hours appointment and treatment.

My DD was the first off her in her class, but like a ripple effect more than 2/3 of her class ended up off school.

She had a temperature too. The other pupils off were coughing the same with a temp.

My son was bad but not as bad so he kept going to school despite a constant cough and a temp. Local advice is to send them to school with a "head cold"

Daughter has a class mate with family in China, they'd recently visited.

It made the news here and another school locally had a class where almost everyone was off with the same symptoms.

We had a positive PCR test for DD on 21 June (missed the last week of term🤦🏼‍♀️) 13 of her class mates positive too but all of them shrugged it off like it was nothing.

To this day I'm convinced DD and DS has Covid in November 2019.

That photo at the end of January of that poor man lying dead in the street in Wuhan and 2 people in hazmat suits - although I didn't think it would reach here.
Then in March when I'd taken one of the dc for a walk in the countryside and feeling "I don't think we're really supposed.to be out", hearing the relief in my father's voice when I told him I was keeping the kids off school before they were officially closed (like so many others did who were quicker to catch on! The last school pickup, the playground was almost empty, & I was still wondering why cinemas had to shut because couldn't people just sit further apart?!), crying quietly with fear at my desk at home hoping dh didn't see me, feeling as though I'd shut down and could only focus on immediate family (still feel like that).
I wasn't afraid around panic buying though- I genuinely believed that within a couple of weeks stock levels would be fine if people just behaved sensibly.

When one of the residents in the care home I work in died from it. And one of the carers who caught it ended up in hospital. He survived, but 12 months on he still looks shocking.
Until then, I'd seen the posters around the building 'advice for travellers from wuhan' and thought, as if, who the fuck can afford to go to China on this wage.

When DH towards the end of 2019 and early 2020 kept asking if we had enough supplies for a couple of weeks as there was something like SARS in China and he thought it might come here.

When we had our last day at school in March 2020, a senior leader came round and told us to make sure the children took everything home as they thought they might be off until September. I remember thinking but that's such a long way to be off school. Little did I know.

Meeting at school socially distanced in the hall the next day while the Head and Senior Leaders outlined the plan. Everyone looked stunned and shocked. I remember looking around and wondering when I would see everyone again.

Friday 13th March 2020. Got word my uncle had died. Presumably Covid. Work got instructed to shut down and a party I was looking forward to got cancelled. I remember sitting down with my head in my hands thinking... "shit got real"

As soon as Wuhan locked down in late January. You don't lock down a city of 11 million people for something that isn't extremely serious.

I had a work trip to London (I'm in the US) in February and ummed about whether I should cancel- that was the week before UK half term travellers started coming back from Italy with cases.

@Xigris love the name and very apt !
When a patient was admitted, talking, reading the paper, on fio2 100%. Quickly ended up self proning, intubated and sadly dying within 2 days with a viral infection. Yes I've looked after flu patients who are horrendously ill, but the deterioration was not as rapid. We certainly became skilled in proning again. Wasn't something we did that often.

When I went into Sainsbury’s on the way home from work and the aisles were completely bare. There was no meat, fish, bread, fruit, veg or milk at all. There was also a weird atmosphere where everyone seemed on edge. Then as I left the shop I saw with a face mask for the first time, it
I was so taken a back I rang my mum to tell her I couldn’t believe I’d seen someone wearing one in real life. It’s hard to believe now when they are so commonplace.

We always go skiing February half term, but for various reasons didn't book it last year. I remember feeling very glad we weren't going and feeling a bit "rather you than me" at some colleagues who were off to Italy.
I cancelled one or two trips over Feb half term, and SIL was very worried about going to a world trade fair in Amsterdam at the beginning of February. She said that many countries (particularly in the Far East) hadn't sent delegates at all. I refrained from meeting up with her for a week or two after she returned from that trip - I made excuses though, as there was so much ridicule going on at the time (not least on MN).

And going to Sainsbury's a bit later for Easter Eggs. The queues to get into any supermarket! Everyone wearing gloves and very on edge and instead of music, war-like announcements warning you about the 2 metres and the one way system.

Someone in work told me that drones were being used to monitor people on the streets in either China or Spain, I can’t remember, thought it sounded like far fetched conspiracy bollocks, then I looked it up and it was true!
When I read a town in Italy had locked down it’s residents I thought yep it’s coming here.

It’s strange when you think about how quickly everything changed and got serious isn’t it? I was at a wedding only a month before lockdown, with well over a hundred guests and no social distancing. Within three weeks of that all schools had closed, sporting events had stopped, and shops had closed and then we went into lockdown the following Monday. I don’t know about anyone else but when Boris did his ‘you just stay at home’ speech I got chills and realised that I was watching a pivotal moment in history and it was something that would be shown forever on documentaries and things like that.

@copernicium

And going to Sainsbury's a bit later for Easter Eggs. The queues to get into any supermarket! Everyone wearing gloves and very on edge and instead of music, war-like announcements warning you about the 2 metres and the one way system.

Oh God yes, those announcements, they were like from war of the world It was like being in a horror film

8th March
We had seen family and been laughing and joking about it. Then drove home and listened to the radio about various areas in Italy going into "lockdown" and only being able to leave the house for specific reasons. Then it suddenly felt much more serious and I felt it was a matter of time before that happened here.

I drove my children to their fathers for childcare/homeschool so I could work and cried all the way home, I was absolutely shit scared I was never going to see them again. And I kept thinking I have to make a plan so I can go and get them but what if I get arrested for leaving the house, how will I get to them? They kept asking me will you come back for us? I kept promising them if anything happens I’ll come and get you. It was fucking horrific. The fear was unbelievable. In that moment I felt like an absolute failure.

This thread has made me cry.

I don't think I will ever be the same again.

As soon as the news started coming out from China, we were all recovering from the worst illness we'd ever had, couldn't taste or smell, high fevers, the worst cough, awful fatigue and muscle pain, never felt so unwell. We were watching the news clip of them building a huge hospital in days, we looked at each other and said we're fucked, it's coming.

I, amongst others, was laughed at on here for opinions and believing we'd already had Covid in December 2919.

@FakeFruitShoot

This thread has made me cry.

I don't think I will ever be the same again.

It's had me welling up too. It still feels so surreal, even though life isn't yet back to normal and may not be for some time yet.

When the first lockdown was announced and shortly afterwards we lost a family member to covid 😢. She was a healthy lady and went downhill and passed in less than a week .

On a vaguely lighter note, a lady on a local social media asked last February, if anyone could recommend somewhere selling face masks. I was about to recommend a peel off one I got in a tube, from the beauty section in TK Maxx....when I realised she didnt mean that sort.
Almost everywhere had sold out

January 20th 2020.We had visitors from the USA staying with us .They wanted to see a few of the historic sites that are in the city that we live in . That weekend coincided with Chinese New Year and the announcement by the WHO of the spread of a Corona Virus in Wuhan. while we were sight seeing we encountered many groups of masked Chinese tourists which is nothing unusual but they were so careful not to come anywhere near us and seemed very ,very nervous. We all noticed it and that something was not right Later that evening we were in a restaurant that serves a local speciality . I am normally never in there but that evening as to be expected it was full of mainly Chinese tourists.They were all so on edge and so intent on keeping their distance that I knew something big was happening .I will never forget it.

@FakeFruitShoot

This thread has made me cry.

I don't think I will ever be the same again.

I know what you mean.