‘It’s not over’: intimate diaries from the eye of the UK’s coronavirus storm

From an intensive care nurse to a homeless restaurant worker, four people changed by Covid-19 reflect on the most intense chapter of their lives

On 21 February, McFarlane, 57, was on her way back to Bangkok airport with her husband, Archie. The couple had been visiting their son, who works at an international school. We felt apprehensive because the virus was starting to hit the news," she recalls. She wore a mask at the airport and on the flight, though her husband refused. At Heathrow, nobody took their temperature or handed out hygiene leaflets, unlike in Bangkok. You wouldn't have known anything was wrong."