Prior to lockdown I was a dentist working out my notice at a practice in Chester Le Street, County Durham.

Since its emergence in China I have followed this outbreak via news apps and for the month leading up to lockdown via a website which gave me updates on new cases and deaths in all countries. With a rising sense of panic I could see how bad it was getting, how out of control it was and how little was being done in the UK to limit its spread.

Two weeks prior to the CDO's belated announcement I was sufficiently worried to begin more stringent decontamination procedures with both my nurse and I wiping down all the surgery surfaces, chairs and door handles between patients and the OCD hand washing kicked in.

The weekend of the herd immunity debacle before the prime minister's Monday night speech to the nation and three days before the CDO's missive, I decided that working in a dental surgery - the close contact with patients' mouths combined with production of aerosols - was way too dangerous. We would be putting the health and lives of our team and patients at risk unnecessarily and would contribute to the transmission of a highly infectious virus.

Luckily my principal was of a similar mind and at a hastily convened Monday morning meeting we decided that practice policy would be no scaling or periodontal treatment with the ultrasonic, no drilling unless absolutely necessary and then under a rubber dam, routine exams to be cancelled especially for vulnerable groups and to move to an emergency service only. I was happy that my principal instituted these measures as I know a lot of practices carried on as normal even into the next week. In hindsight though, I wonder if we as a profession should have shut up shop a lot earlier.

By the Friday my anxiety levels about catching and/or spreading coronavirus were through the roof, especially as I am an asthmatic. I had already read horror stories about how the pneumonia affected asthmatic lungs and had been frantically sourcing a nebuliser on Amazon. My principal very kindly at this juncture agreed I should go home and begin self-isolation.

So here I am two or is it three weeks later? I have no job and no income. As far as I am aware I am not eligible for any help from the government and I am worried that if financial help does become available I will have to risk my health and life and accept redeployment in a COVID hospital doing what I am not exactly sure, without the correct PPE. I would like to carry on as a dentist but there are no dental hubs set up yet. I have cancelled my indemnity and have begun to apply for jobs as a delivery driver or a 111 call centre operator. The small hope I had that the CDO would be able to clarify the situation was dashed during her webinar. At the end of it I was left feeling confused, depressed and fearful for the future of dentistry. I do not know when I will practise again or if I will be safe to practise again. It is a total mess.