Coronavirus diary, Thursday 16 April

While Britain waits for the pandemic to peak, possibly next week say the experts, some countries are beginning to make life easier. In Germany, shops are opening and children are going back to school at the start of May. China is trying to kickstart its stricken economy with workers going back to the factories. Austria, the Czech republic, Sweden and even Italy are lifting some restrictions. This gives us hope although we have just been told the lockdown will continue for another three weeks.

Don't add company - for now...

The government are being urged to tell us their plans for what will obviously be a gradual, long term return to normal, which may happen next week. They have also been urged to reopen schools, considered to be the first step to revive the economy. Britain has heeded the government's warnings and orders surprisingly well, realising the seriousness of the situation and agreeing that tough decisions had to be taken. No one could have imagined a few months ago, when we could go where we liked, when we liked, that we would have to stay at home for weeks, isolated from families and friends. 

Despite missing visits from family and friends, I am enjoying life here at Sunrise. One reason is being able to keep in touch with them thanks to the internet. Until now, it was a total mystery to me (apart from shopping online and emailing, which I have done for over 20 years). I thought I was too old to learn new tricks but thanks to Robert I am keeping in daily touch in ways I never dreamed of. Zoom, FaceTime - never heard of them. Now I chat with Robert on FaceTime and I've accepted an invitation to a drinks party organised by my granddaughters via Xoom. Amazing. 

Huw Tregellis Williams. Photo: Swansea University

Throughout my working life the phone (landline not mobile!) was the main way to communicate, and even that was difficult at first when most people did not have phones at home. As a reporter it meant getting out and about in all weathers for stories, but it was a phone that let me down many years later on one of my most interesting days. 

I was on a jumbo jet, British Airways City of Cardiff, en route to Japan, where the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra were to tour. We had been given a send off at Heathrow with the band of the Welsh Guards and were going to broadcast while in the air. I had to arrange for the head of music, Huw Tregellis Williams, to interview the Welsh pilot for the BBC evening news bulletin - by radio. At 35,000 feet above Sweden we were ready to go. There were to be two interviews, English and Welsh. Sitting cramped on the flight deck, Huw was ready to go. I got the signal from the radio transmitter at Portishead. The first interview went well, clear and loud. On to the Welsh version - but we lost the connection, the radio link was broken. Someone at Broadcasting House in Cardiff had put the phone down!

Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 15 April

The coronavirus epidemic has exposed the shambolic state of social care, says The Times in a leader today [paywall] and the statistics give stark proof. 1,885 care homes in England have reported outbreaks in the past 24 hours; 13 percent of homes have now been affected; five percent of all deaths have been in care homes. Even more worrying, the overall figures of coronavirus deaths may be worse as the exact total has not been divulged. In Wales, the picture is just as disturbing: of the 1,000 plus homes, 81 report new cases and 217 suspected cases. Here, as in England, there has been an outcry over the lack of testing and provision of equipment for carers. As demand for action grows, the elderly in our homes are being forgotten, it is claimed;  'airbrushed out'. 

The government seems at last to have got the message, shocked and shamed into action perhaps with the startling press onslaught with their 'catastrophe' headlines, terrifying for thousands in care homes and their families. The government, blamed for delay and errors, have now promised to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and to introduce testing of care home staff and improve the service to hospitals. 

Theresa May: abandoned 2017 manifesto plan to reform social care

There is uncertainty, too, over the difference in risk between care/nursing homes and residential homes. In Sunrise, we are reassured by the precautions being taken, spelled out in regular messages, to keep us safe. Britain's neglect of health and social services is shown up by other countries. In Germany, my friends tell me, health and social services are better funded and managed. There, people like me do not have to spend their life savings when they go into a care home. They have been paying for it over the years in their taxes. When this crisis ends, our health and social services must be totally reorganised after decades of confusion and delay. The problem has been political. The parties have always focused on the short term: four or five years to the next election. That must change. 

Coronavirus diary, Tuesday 14 April

Back to work after the bank holiday? Not this year. With most of the country in lockdown it was certainly no holiday for the millions still stuck at home with just brief outings for exercise, to collect medicine or do basic shopping. There was no respite for the 'essential workers' struggling bravely and selflessly to save lives and keep Britain ticking over, like the carers and staff here at Sunrise. For most of my working life, selfishly perhaps, I enjoyed going back to work after bank holidays, even after happy times with my family. I liked my work and was fortunate in having an interesting if at times hectic life in journalism and public relations for over 50 years. No day was the same. 

How different today for all of us, and we do not know how long it will last. Despite a fall for the second day in the number of deaths, restrictions will not be lifted, even partially, for three more weeks. The government, with the epidemic peak not yet reached, do not want to take the risk. It looks as if we may be advised soon to wear face masks like other countries. If so, I hope we make sure sufficient supplies are available and distributed better than with PPE - personal protective equipment. 

Captain Scott and Terra Nova leave Cardiff for the South Pole, 1910

Another sunny day and another chance to get in to the Sunrise gardens, supervised by our carers. I miss my scooter trips, especially to Roath Park, a few minutes' drive away which I have loved since I was a child. The park is one of Cardiff's biggest attractions, and was opened in 1894 on land donated by the Marquis of Bute in 1887. The promenade overlooks the 30 acre man-made lake. A lighthouse commemorates Captain Scott, who sailed from Cardiff in 1910 on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. The lighthouse contains a model of his Terra Nova ship. 

Granddaughters Ria and Siân, Roath Park, 1980s

I remember celebrating the end of term at Cardiff High School with a swim in the now long-closed lido on the lakeside near the promenade. Swimming was banned due to polluted water from the Nant Fawr stream flowing through it. My children and grandchildren loved the playground, and the ice cream kiosk! One of my first outings when we get the all clear' will be to go there with my great-granddaughters and again hear the playground echoing with children's shrieks and laughter. 

Robert at Roath Park, September 2019

The plaque on the Scott memorial lighthouse, 1994

Coronavirus diary, Easter Monday 13 April

Chequers

The prime minister left hospital after a week yesterday to convalesce at Chequers, the Buckinghamshire mansion left to the nation by Viscount Lee, a former MP. Mr Johnson was eloquent and lavish in his praise for the treatment he had received at St Thomas' Hospital, London, naming the nurses and other staff who he said had 'worked every second every day' to save his life. Still looking wan and tired, he is not expected to resume work for some weeks, but with key decisions to be made it is difficult to imagine him not pulling the strings and deciding the path Britain will take out of the maze of uncertainty created by coronavirus. 

Raab: wooden and unconvincing

To many, Boris Johnson's cabinet are indeed puppets. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, dragged probably reluctantly into the limelight to deputise for the PM, is wooden and unconvincing as a leader, while Matt Hancock, the health secretary for England, almost daily manages to offend and annoy whole sections of the country, from health workers to footballers, by his thoughtless, ignorant comments and hectoring. He has been shown to be dishonest, evasive and pompous. 

The good news about the PM is offset by the announcement that 10,000 have now died in the UK and that the epidemic may not have peaked. The country's economic position is causing as much concern as its health with thousands of businesses on the brink of bankruptcy and millions out of work. The government is being urged to relax some restrictions that are crippling the economy but there is hesitation. A decision is promised later this week, and it is possible that a date for reopening schools and some businesses may be made but there is caution. A wrong decision could prolong the disruption and anxiety. That is surely a decision that Mr Johnson will want to make. 

The sun-drenched Easter weekend that ended today with a chilly wind demonstrated that Britain has observed better than most countries draconian restrictions. The stay at home message has been heeded with comparatively few flouting the rules. Ironically, one government minister who had been proclaiming it loud and clear did not listen. He left his one million pound London home for a 50 mile trip to his even more lavish country home to visit his mother. Last week, the chief medical officer for Scotland resigned after a similar misjudgement. 

The plight of the elderly in care homes, where the death rate is frighteningly high, is causing national dismay. There is even the accusation that staff are left ill equipped, putting them and their residents at great risk. Here at Sunrise, a residential not nursing home, we are being reassured by regular information on plans to keep us safe. A few of the residents have themselves decided to stay in their rooms but most of us are enjoying our normal, pleasant, comfortable lives.  

Coronavirus diary, Easter Day, 12 April

Family friend and priest Anthony Beer has an unusual congregation at his Easter Day 2020 communion in the vicarage garden

Easter Sunday. Last year we could not have imagined how different this Easter would be. Normal life has been on hold, paused in the modern idiom. No trips to the sea or countryside, no drink at the pub, no parties and no services in our churches and chapels. 

Easter has always been a time to look forward to brighter days, more important now than ever. It has been a happy day for me in my home from home, Sunrise. Disappointed at not being with family and friends but heartened by the stream of Easter greetings, emails and cards. I may be one of the 'old and vulnerable' but I am fortunate and thankful to be so well looked after as today has again proved. I started Easter Sunday with breakfast in my room. When I went down to the foyer, our carers were handing out our presents, Easter eggs - and for me, a diabetic, a potted plant. 

At eleven, we met in the parlour for our Easter service, conducted not by a priest or minister but by Alice, a carer whose father is a vicar. It was a simple, lovely service, a brief sermon, readings and hymns. Alice's father could be proud of her. Then, back to my room to read the Sunday paper and our own Sunrise daily, the Twinkle, a well-produced and written colour-printed newsletter. Just right for us with our long memories - a look back to the days of rock and roll, a family's visit to the Bowder stone in the Lake District and a spring flowers quiz. 

Memories: Easter 10 years ago, with young grandson Owen

After lunch, appropriately, we could do our own Easter parade - much more sedately - in the garden with our carers. I managed 50 yards to the first bench. The sun was shining, the birds were singing their own Easter song. After our evening meal most of us went back to our rooms to read, watch television or listen to music. And perhaps to think of our past Easters. A normal Sunrise day even in these abnormal times. 

Coronavirus diary, Easter Saturday 11 April

Like most children, I suspect, I used to find learning tables boring. The two-twos-are-four lesson was drummed into us day after day, month after month. 

We get the message...

I am getting the same feeling now with the lessons we are getting every day from our new teachers: government ministers and health experts. Important, vital messages but do we need to be bombarded with them day and night? Don't they realise they are overdoing it, that boredom is setting in? By now everyone must have got the message even if a tiny minority are ignoring it. In these high-tech days, spreading alarm and despondency is too easy yet that is what's happening. Coronavirus is the dominant, almost only subject on television, radio and in newspapers. BBC TV, with fewer programmes to trail, is even urging us to keep up to date with their non-stop news output. Yes, we need to know what is happening at home and around the world but please let us see the broader picture.

Harking back again to the war when there was the same uncertainty and fearfulness, with deaths mounting on the battlefields and in our cities, the media reporting was limited to radio and the press. There were no breaking news reports by the minute, just daily news bulletins. In the first world war, there was just the newspapers. On balance I think 'no news is good news' is better than non-stop bad news. 

There's still laughter at Sunrise, Cardiff, thanks to the carers. They have made a video that deserves a drum roll introduction .... pass the loo roll! I am one of the residents shown passing a loo roll like rugby players. Not a pass was dropped. We were on a roll! 

Coronavirus diary, Good Friday 10 April

Pope Francis alone as he gives his Easter message

Like everything at this changed beyond recognition time, this Easter is different yet more relevant, more important than ever. Church doors are shut but this year a much wider congregation is thinking and praying at home. We may not be devout or even religious but what is happening in the world has made us understand better the values and virtues of Christian thought and behaviour. 

We have been nationally applauding the health workers and carers who, at risk to themselves and their loved ones, continue to serve us. Simple services, relayed from homes, not churches, provide comfort and hope. We look forward to next Easter, to remember with pride and gratitude the dedication and courage of those who risked their lives to save ours.

A Good Friday and a spring like no other

It's a summer sun shining on us this early spring day, an omen perhaps of brighter days ahead. For those not confined to their homes, a chance to go out for their daily exercise - a walk, jog or bike ride - or to shop. We can even buy Easter eggs, confirmed by the government after police, bewildered by conflicting reports of restrictions, searched shopping baskets. 

The news that the prime minister is out of intensive care has been greeted with relief and pleasure throughout the country, with warm messages from world leaders. How long it will be before he is back at work leading the country is uncertain, but we hope it is soon as his absence has exposed the deficiencies of his cabinet team. 

The confirmation that the lockdown must continue - inevitable with a heavy death toll reported daily, and the peak of the outbreak still to come - is a disappointment. But there is a greater realisation that our restricted lifestyle must continue as long as necessary to end this nightmare of a spring.