Today we will be looking at what it is like to work in the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic that is sweeping the world. Key workers from across the world have pulled together this year to help us all in the fight against covid-19 and now we will hear what it is like to work in the front lines of this devastatingly hard time. 

 

“Working through the pandemic has been strange, especially working in the supermarket.” an anonymous worker said, “The strangest thing about working through this has been the behaviour of customers. Things that wouldn’t normally be an issue, like someone reaching past another person to get an item off the shelf, initiated violence at the worst of times.” 

This key worker is the mother of three children and has to live with the constant fear of what could happen should she contract the virus and bring it home, letting unknown consequences plague the family. Buying food, even essentials for the family was especially difficult for her as she has to provide for herself, her children, her cat and her boyfriend. 

 

At the start of the pandemic, people were panic buying and stocking up. This left key workers with little they could buy and the overcrowdedness from stores before restrictions were put into place was alarming and things did not calm down much until after restrictions had been placed. “I think the best thing supermarkets did was limit the number of people in the store at one time and although at first, it made panic buying worse than it already was, things got calmer the more people got used to the idea that this would have to be our new normal.”  

 

Unfortunately, this pandemic seems to have gone on far too long as key workers struggle to remember what life was like before covid-19. “This isn’t something you would expect to have to get used too, staying away from customers whilst being supposed to assist them,” she said, “it just goes to show, we have taken our lives for granted. We have had to adjust from being able to do what we want, where we want, with who we want and change what we grew up with doing, and do the complete opposite. We can’t see who we want or go out with friends. It's difficult to adjust to but I suppose we will have to. If not for each other, then for our children and families.” 

 

It is clear that the pandemic has taken its toll on the population but lessons have been learnt, plans have been formulated and vaccines are supposedly on their way to the public. “I think people cant wait for things to get back to normal as soon as possible.”