A YEAR after the first confirmed Covid-19 cases in Britain, health workers have been left “burned out, fatigued and desperately sad.”

These words, from intensive-care nurse Joanne Morrell, sum up the toll that the year-long struggle against coronavirus has had and is taking on dedicated health-service staff.

But with well over 100,000 people’s lives now cut short by the coronavirus, which saw its first confirmed cases in Britain a year ago today, NHS workers and their unions still find themselves demanding action — on testing, staffing and protective equipment.