The scale of Britain’s coronavirus outbreak can seem overwhelming, with tens of thousands of new infections and more than 1,000 deaths added each day. But on hospitals’ Covid-19 wards, the pandemic feels both epic and intimate, as staff fight the virus one patient at a time, and with no end in sight.

Critical care consultant Dr Jenny Townsend works on a 16-bed intensive care ward that currently has 30 patients, with two beds squeezed into each bay designed for one. In normal times, one intensive care nurse looks after one patient. The ratio is now as high as one to four.

While the number of patients being admitted to London hospitals with Covid-19 is gradually diminishing, pressure on medics will only ease slowly because of the time lag between infections, hospitalisations and — for the sickest patients — transfers to intensive care.

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