I moved to Doha in 2013 and teach here with my husband at an international school. Our baby - Bertie - was born on 9th March; the day before Qatar went into lockdown. His whole life has been spent in the cocoon of our home, with us and our four-year-old, Edward. Now the temperatures are climbing (high of 40 today) and face masks are mandatory, making it harder to go outside and bike ride without stabilisers (!). My maternity leave ends after Eid so I will begin my own e-teaching experience - I'm apprehensive but so excited to reconnect with my students. We have our activity "rota" - the baking, the family zooming, the cooking, the den, the film, the paddling pool, the painting...but now we are learning to shift down a gear and enjoy our baby Bertie's cuddles before we have to share him with others!
From Doha with love

Lockdown in perspective
We called it quarantine. It happened many times for mumps, measles, chickenpox and more. We were kept at home; no TV or computers, and phone only for emergencies, but plenty of books. Children's hour on the radio was 5-6pm. I missed another month when my brother had scarlet fever, and then I had no-one to play with. Did we mind? We had never known anything else. One exception was Rubella when girls were sent to play with infected children to protect them during later pregnancy. When we did get to school we missed many hours sheltering in the cellars during air raids. That was our ‘normal’.

Survivor Guilt
Paradoxical disappointment at dodging the bullet, but not getting to put all our preparation to the test. Such is Covid in rural NSW. A slow trickle of adults have been seen in our newly-separated emergency department Hot Zone. Not a single positive child has tasted the luxury of the paediatric hot zone, rapidly put together in an area purloined from the adjacent CAMHS in-patient unit. Massive changes designed and realised by clinicians working long hours, collaborating in an unprecedented way. Hospital admin struggled to keep up with the 'let's get this done' attitude of clinicians terrified by the impending tsunami and the horror stories from colleagues and friends overseas. Twas not to be - the tyranny of distance saved us. Wondering where all the kids have gone, as I stare at empty beds - social distancing has delayed our bronchiolitis and flu season! The Lucky Country, indeed…

As overseer of the Equipment Sharing Project, I was tasked with speaking directly to university lab and equipment managers to see how we could support the Government’s CV19 test facility to ensure they had sufficient quantities of reagents and equipment, and to help source equipment for the local collaborative response between the University of Cambridge, AstraZeneca and GSK based at the Anne McLaren Building. As well as publicising funding-support and news via the publically accessible website that operates in parallel, I used the equipment database much like anyone would; searching for equipment and creating lists of primary contacts with whom to connect. Within four days (and over the Easter Weekend, I hasten to add) the offers of equipment exceeded our original request and allowed us to develop contingency plans for back-up equipment should the need arise. I was also able to connect organisers here with PPE manufacturers in China through friends of the Institute for Manufacturing’s ISMM44 cohort who went above and beyond to help us in our moment of need. On a not-so-directly-work-related-note, having signed up to the Love-to-Ride scheme in March, one of the WFH highlights for me has been emulating my daily bicycle commute to ensure I stay fit. I’ve since cycled 433 miles and have really enjoyed the quietness of the roads during lockdown.

I started my postdoc at Queen’s University Belfast late last year, and had a few months of experimental work before lockdown began. Now I’ve become a stay-at-home scientist. Like many of my peers, I'm hurriedly learning bioinformatics and getting around to all the papers I’ve been meaning to read. Last year, I did an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and the timing has been serendipitous, because the humanities research skills I developed have served me in lockdown. The MPhil helped me become a more strategic reader and writer. It inculcated the self-discipline required for working from home, and the perseverance to do sustained stretches of staring at words. I'm aware of how fortunate I am that I enjoy the new mode of work and that I still to have a salary, despite doing a very different job than the one I was hired to do.

I am a Lecturer of Law at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Life under lockdown has been surreal. I had to get used to a new normal, that being teaching students online using Zoom, including dealing with student consultations, all within a very short period of time. The Zoom platform has been facilitative and has enabled the teaching of law to continue as per normal. Students I taught found the sessions interesting. I have been more generous with my time online and I think students appreciate that.

Life under lockdown is said to be doom and gloom, fuelled with marital spats and feverish children. However, I have found lockdown to be a liberating experience. I can relate to tales of early academics who found respite and clarity in isolation and had time to devote to thinking and developing research. I am an academic at another UK higher education institution, and rarely have the time to look at my research let alone be creative! My research looks at how we can improve mental health and wellbeing by adopting a mind-body approach. During lockdown, I have set up my home routine reminiscent of that of an ashram - meditation sessions, online yoga classes, cooking vegetarian recipes and drinking chai. The mental peace this achieves has enabled me to start developing my ideas, which I hope will make a positive contribution to the lives of others one day.

During this pandemic, I am performing online teaching in Chile. I am teaching for the first time! I recently became a Professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez in Santiago, Chile, in January 2020. It has been extremely challenging to start as a young professor in online mode. Besides learning new online platforms, I have been pushing my creativity to engage students and enhance participation during classes. My previous teaching experience was when I did Supervisions in Cambridge, with small groups of students (1-4). Now, I have (20-24) students in a (virtual) classroom, all of them behind screens. I think this pandemic will force us to re-asses and develop novel and efficient teaching strategies, to maximize student's learning through this particular hard time. I am trying to do my best and hoping to get the most from this adverse situation, which many professors are facing around the world.

The first case in Zambia was 18 March 2020. As Minister of Information and a Government spokesperson, I was in the forefront to ensure information dissemination to all Zambians. The country has been in partial lock down since 26 March. My job includes going in high density areas and speaking to citizens about wearing masks and social distancing. I contracted COVID-19, and was in quarantine from 19th May to 1 June. Now I’m back at work and sharing more information on COVID-19.

In Chicago we are under restrictions as we attempt to re-open safely. I leave my apartment only for groceries and other necessities, always wearing a face mask. I retired from full-time ministry as a Catholic priest on October 1, 2019. Nonetheless, I still do part-time work from home via the internet. Like the rest of our society, our churches, schools, and offices will slowly re-open according to strict guidance developed by the Archdiocese of Chicago and approval of the State of Illinois. Today is the 94th day of my lockdown, home alone and coping. In the last two weeks I was able to work a few part-time days from my office four blocks away. I share my isolation with billions around the globe, and I pray that Providence will guide us to care for each other.

In Crete, the number of cases of Covid 19 has been low. In fact, in the whole of Greece, there have been fewer than 200 deaths. This has been attributed to the early action taken to restrict movement, although I suspect a more realistic explanation is the strict implementation of those measures, with on the spot fines and possible arrest. There’s no question of "please do as we ask” here. As a wise man once said to me: policing by consent is all very well as long as people consent. The prospect of tourists returning will be not a moment too soon for the local economy which has taken a huge hit. However, rather selfishly, I do not miss the invading hordes of tourists. For someone who is happy with her own company, self-isolation is no hardship. Keeping fit is no problem, while work continues with computers and telephones.

With a house full of 80 years of books, I'm getting around to the re-reading I kept them for. Nobody can come in to see the neglected housework, I know more neighbours than I ever did when they worked, and people bring me my shopping! Am I wracked by isolation? Dear hearts - that's what old age is about - bits of you get crumbly and your grandkids grow up and away. Lockdown (that time when everyone suddenly remembers to ask if we're all right?) - the future of the world may be terrible but my present - birdsong, friends, breathable air, researching nights and sleeping mornings - is not bad at all.

When lockdown began, I figured I would catch up on writing. Instead, I became part of project to detect asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV2 to help reduce the epidemic. We designed a highly specific test that detected even little copies of the virus at a fraction of the cost of the official test, which was extremely limited in the national health system. Together with an 83-strong team of researchers, students, and alumni, we have run more than 5,000 free tests and detected 450 positive cases. By detecting these infections early, we have helped avoid 30,000 infections of which 6000 would have needed hospitalisation and 1,080 deaths. Despite its high population-density, ours is still one of the states with fewer cases in Mexico. The experience has been overwhelming, exhausting, and rewarding. I am proud to be a part of this effort. Every life saved makes the effort worthwhile! 

Lockdown in New York
As a doctor, my first impulse was to help. Unfortunately, due to high risk factors such as age and ethnicity, I came to the conclusion that discretion was the better part of valour. My family in the UK persuaded me to stay indoors during this ongoing lockdown. I have spent this time reconnecting with friends and colleagues via the blessing of technology; updating my medical and technological knowledge; sorting out the lifetime of things that my parents had collected in their apartment and cooking. I only go out once a week - to the supermarket for groceries. A strange way of life! I was reminded of the start of the AIDS epidemic when I was a young intern/junior doctor in New York - the same fear of the unknown. I took this photo at the start of lockdown in March at 7am.

My day as a GP has changed dramatically to spending most of my time telephone and video consulting with an occasional visitor to the premises. Remote triage feels laden with risk as well as making therapeutic connections harder. Impressed by the tech-savvy elderly I have been dragged into learning new technology. It has been an exhausting process keeping up with the latest medical knowledge of COVID. A constant bombardment of 'reflections' and guidance arrives while the really useful information has come via informal channels. Reshaping services on the hoof and daily changing staff due to sickness has been a challenge. Working in PPE is tiring and with a tendency to steam up. This a marathon, the team is tired yet we worry about a second wave in the SouthWest once the visitors return. Watching news items on those unable to go to work I prefer my lot I think.

I am a palliative care consultant in Cardiff and Reader/Programme Director at Cardiff for postgraduate palliative medicine. Lockdown meant cancelling our 30 year celebration but we continue to connect and support our international postgraduate students in their distance learning studies. As a doctor I don PPE and visit people at home. I create and share learning material for communication skills from behind PPE. We zoom with our children and our elderly parents who are shielding. To destress I paint and write poetry and have started a 'covid tapestry’ of verse. We've been raising money for our palliative care team - people have rowed, run, baked...I have painted 26 pictures. Lockdown has been a time for volunteering work to support colleagues and deep reflection. It's 38 years since A levels and starting at New Hall - I'm continually empowered by all I learnt and how I learned it at Cambridge.

I am a Psychotherapist with Transport for London, where myself and my colleagues work therapeutically with many front line workers. Our usual clinical remit is to deliver therapeutic interventions to employees following incidents of trauma at work, but since the pandemic we are also supporting staff experiencing significant mental distress at this time. Typical referrals since lockdown commenced include those struggling with increased anxiety and/or depression; those who have experienced traumatic loss due to COVID-19; individuals who have been assaulted, including spat at, while on duty, and those experiencing re-triggering of previous trauma. I am also co-editor of the online journal Contemporary Psychotherapy. Our upcoming edition will include the section ‘Reflections on working at the time of COVID-19’, where psychotherapists share experiences of the impact of the pandemic, and remote working, on their practice, and potential implications for the future of their own work, and for our profession overall.

In Adelaide, Australia, public and private hospital services were quickly amalgamated and clinicians repurposed to combat the huge numbers of anticipated COVID-19 cases. All teaching, elective surgery and public outpatient services ceased. We worked from home, consulted by zoom and had teams on site. We couldn’t find hand sanitiser, toilet paper and cleaning equipment, while local manufacturing was rapidly ramped up. Social distancing and online shopping was the norm with a daily walk keeping us sane. After 440 people were infected, 4 people died, and 111,886 tests were done - no new cases occurred and eventually no one was infective. The coffee shops and schools opened, takeaways were available and we could go shopping without be scared of catching COVID-19. People looked after each other - not one health worker died. We are very thankful that we can work and live safely in our local economy.

Lockdown gives me a unique perspective on the value of my Cambridge degree. I am balancing work, home and home school in a way reminiscent of essay crises past. I am appreciating my ability to think back to first principals as I develop enough understanding of endoscope design to help my daughter with her homework. (After much discussion we conclude it's basically a camera on a stick with a light on it.) I am reflecting on the benefits of an academic community as I support my own students in their learning and professional lives. Most of all, in lockdown's early phases, I realise the benefits untold of experiencing life in Russia in 1996/97 as I become shopper and housewife extraordinaire in my quest for eggs and flour!

After finishing a previous role in December 2019, little did I expect to be interviewed and start work for a national healthcare company in the middle of lockdown. Two months in and most of my work counties to be from my home office, although I have now met four of my many colleagues face to face in one of our local offices. One thing’s for sure - the working world will never be the same again.

Take care and stay safe.