Covid: Doctors who treated first patients 'exhausted'

Dr Anda Samson said she and her colleagues had been through a "rollercoaster of emotions"

A doctor who treated the UK's first coronavirus cases one year ago said battling the disease has been an "exhausting" effort for NHS staff.

Dr Anda Samson was on duty when two patients were brought to a hospital near Hull after falling ill in York.

Both later tested positive for Covid-19 - the first confirmed cases in the UK.

Dr Samson said over the past 12 months she and her colleagues had been through a "rollercoaster of emotions" but that she had "high hopes" for vaccines.

"It's exhausting and a little bit demoralising to still see the numbers going up," she said.

"I really do hope that will slow down in the next weeks if not months.

"Then, hopefully, I can look back and have a think about what's happened, because at the moment there is just no time to think, we only have to do."

According to the latest data analysed by the BBC, 174 people were admitted to Hull University Teaching Hospitals in the week to 24 January, up from 150 the previous week and the highest for more than ten weeks.

Dr Samson said hospitals were caring for about 260 patients, "the highest number we've had since the start of the epidemic".

Colleague Dr Nick Easom, who was also involved in the care of the first patients, said: "It's just tiring. It just keeps going and keeps going.

"I really wish it would finish soon and it's really not going to happen, it's going to be an ongoing problem for months and months and months to come."

Looking back on the events of 29 January 2020, Patrick Lille, who was also on duty that night, said no one could have guessed then what would happen but that by early March "we knew things were very definitely going to go bad".

He said: "It's hard to think of a time before [coronavirus].

"It's so all consuming, and I suppose that was the tipping point when we had those cases. It's certainly not been normal since."

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