'No time to realise scale of pandemic' says Wiltshire Public Health Director
This week marks five years since covid lockdown measures came into force in the UK
Wiltshire's Public Health Director has been reflecting on leading the county's COVID pandemic response, five years on.
Professor Kate Blackburn shared her memories of lockdown being announced with us on the anniversary of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordering us all to stay at home.
Reflecting on the local response to the virus hitting the nation, Professor Blackburn said there wasn't time to consider how big the task she was dealing with was.
"Everything was happening so quickly," she said, saying questions and guidance were coming at the Public Health team rapidly.
She added that the whole team came together with "passion and dedication" to ensure the safety of the local population.
"I don't think I realised at the time everything that was happening because there was so much that was happening," Professor Blackburn said.
She continued: "I remember knowing that I was fully supported by my organisation, by our partners and by our communities as well and that meant that it was less scary and you felt less alone, than you could have done.
While she admitted resilience and energy was low among the team at the end of the pandemic, Professor Blackburn said there had been time to reflect and learn from the decisions that were made.
She said: "I think, as a public health team, our pandemic possibly felt like it lasted longer than other people because we stayed in that response stage for longer as our communities needed us to in terms of support with outbreaks, etc."
She described public health as a "discipline", with a requirement for reflection.
"We did learn a lot of lessons across all the different component parts of the pandemic and the guidance and the things that we were having to deal with in response and then in recovery. So there were opportunities absolutely to be able to reflect and make things better."