Families in pain as loved ones isolated
THE heartbreak currently being endured by many island families is at a scale unprecedented and unimaginable in peacetime.
Decisions taken to protect lives mean the frailest in our community are unable to be visited by their loved ones at the time they need them most.
Among them are care home residents, who have to be shielded for their own protection, unable to be comforted by their family at a frightening time.
Even those nearing the end of their lives – whether through Covid-19 or otherwise – cannot always be supported.
At such times, the soothing aspects of a hand being tenderly held or an emotional hug and a laugh are a source of huge mental and bodily strength.
Those in hospitals, care homes and even hospices are now cut off and isolated from their families and friends while many are battling serious mental and physical illnesses.
It is a devastating decision and not one Public Health will have taken lightly.
But the clusters of coronavirus which have swept through two care homes, indiscriminately and pervasively infecting staff and patients, all too vividly back up the hard-nosed medical logic.
Such homes are the other frontline of the fight against the virus.
The lives of both carers and the vulnerable cannot be put at such risk. Nor can the coronavirus be allowed to take hold in other homes and health centres.
The hurt, misery and sense of abandonment suffered by families in such circumstances, especially those with relatives nearing the end of their lives, put into perspective all other concerns about lockdown.
The inability to shop, exercise and even work seems trivial compared to the trauma of separation from a loved one in pain and need of comfort.
In so many ways, the price being exacted for getting on top of this pandemic is beyond what any of us could have imagined only a few weeks ago.
But it only takes a glance at the national news and the dreadful scenes in intensive care units in London and New York to be instilled again with the determination that the Princess Elizabeth Hospital cannot be allowed to be overrun.
Great sacrifices are being made every day. They must not be in vain.