On the Covid-19 frontline at Cork University Hospital: 'The surge, thankfully, hasn’t come’

Staff cleaning the emergency department at Cork University Hospital. Pictures: Darragh McSweeney/Provision

Under layers of personal protective (PPE) equipment, staff at Cork University Hospital (CUH) work long hours fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

A patient lies in an intensive care bed surrounded by five attentive medics, while outside the room, others make careful notes at hallway desks, process blood tests in the laboratory, and forensically clean every inch of the hospital, from floor to ceiling. But along with concentration-furrowed brows are grins.