She said: “In the November of 2020, the Delta variant was driving a second wave of infection and I was deployed to a Covid ward to help with overwhelmed medical colleagues.
“When I waked on to the ward, there was a box of blue surgical masks.”
She said she was “likely exposed to significantly high viral loads” on the ward and tested positive within days.
She said as a “34-year-old fit and healthy woman” she expected to recover quickly, but when she went back to work she had to leave after two hours.
Dr Fearnley has been unable to return to work due to symptoms such as breathlessness, sleep apnoea, auditory hallucinations and a high resting heart rate.
She said: “I spent the first year housebound and the second year bedbound.
“I feel fortunate that my trajectory seems to be one of slow improvement, although I am still experiencing symptoms on a day-to-day basis.”
