Salute their sacrifice at 11am - #neverforgotten

It’s been a familiar and comforting weekly ritual observed since the coronavirus pandemic really took hold here just over a month ago.

Those workers have been putting themselves at increased risk of exposure to the SARS-Cov-2 virus and it’s appropriate that on the eve of International Workers’ Day we once again pay tribute and show our gratitude in a small gesture of solidarity.

Health service and care staff have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 disease due to the nature of their work.

A number of health care workers in Ireland have sadly died after contracting the illness.

Although a breakdown of the number of fatalities is not provided by the departments of health in Belfast and Dublin thousands of health service staff have tested positive for COVID-19.

Today at 11a.m. UNISON, the Royal College of Nursing NI and the Royal College of Midwives NI are calling on people across the north to observe a minute’s silence to remember all the health, care and other key workers who have lost their lives to coronavirus across Ireland and Britain.

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic the World Health Assembly had designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife in order to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the pioneering social reformer and nurse Florence Nightingale.

When it announced the designation last May, not knowing what was to come, the World Health Organisation pointed out that our nurses are “often the first and only point of care in their communities”.

Take a minute if you can, today and on Thursday. The campaign hashtag for the minute’s silence is #neverforgotten.