Morris the black Cockapoo is snoring comfortably on a red sofa in New York.
He snuggles into his owner who usually refuses to pet him immediately after returning home from work in a Covid-19 ward.
"When I come home every day I go immediately to the shower," explains Angela Roberts.
"My daughter doesn't touch me. I don't touch the dog. I just go straight into the shower. I shower, I change my clothes and then go about my business at the house.
"This is not a practice that I would ordinarily do. But right now that’s something that I am doing".
Roberts is talking over Skype from her New York home where she lives with her teenage daughter Orla.
The Dubliner has worked as operating room nurse for 23 years in the United States but the Covid-19 pandemic means she is working on the frontline helping critically-ill people.
At the hospital where she works, the operating room staff were redeployed to other duties because the majority of the patients in New York hospitals are battling the pandemic's ills.
"Everybody knows somebody who has had a death that is connected with Covid and it is awfully sad."
Roberts is working with patients after they are discharged from the intensive care unit but are still very sick.
"You feel so sad for these patients. To start off with they are all far away from their families - they can't see them, they can't have visitors," she explains.
"They're very sick. This is a very exhausting illness. It is very difficult to see those patients struggling to breath. All of them require oxygen. And sometimes just the simple activity of sitting up and eating is exhausting for them. It is very difficult for them. It is very sad to have to watch," Roberts adds.
"It is lovely to see those patients over a period of days gradually being able to breathe better and require less oxygen to the point where they are able to maybe get up and walk to the bathroom - or walk around the unit - without having to be on oxygen all the time.
"Then when they get to the point where they are gradually being discharged it's great," she said.
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Seeing what she sees working in the Covid-19 wards means Roberts has an evangelical stance on measures to curb the spread of the virus.
"You want to see people doing what is the socially responsible thing so that we can hopefully push forward and get this period in time to be behind us," she said.
Life outside the hospital can sometimes be more stressful than life inside it working with the sickest of the sick. Working with them she is dressed in proper Personal Protective Equipment.
"When I go into the Covid units I feel like I am dressed for the occasion. I sometimes feel more distressed when I am going to the supermarket," explains Roberts.
"Although people are doing everything they can to distance themselves, wear masks, wear gloves, you don't have the same protocols that you have in the healthcare setting. So, therefore you don’t have quite the same safety," said Roberts.
"When I go to a supermarket, I personally always wear a mask. I always wear gloves. I use my own shopping bags from home.
"When I am finished with my shopping and put my groceries in the car, I dispose of my gloves in the store before I leave it.
"I come home and I use different gloves to take everything out and wash everything again before I put it in the cupboard or the fridge. I also try to only go to the supermarket once every two weeks."
New York is the hardest hit state in America in terms of Covid-19. Fatalities have reached 10,834, while there are almost 200,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases so far.
The impact of that is massive and escapes no one in New York.
"Like so many of my colleagues, and like so many of my friends, I can think of nobody who doesn't know somebody who has lost a family member or a friend. Everybody knows somebody who has had a death that is connected with Covid and it is awfully sad," said Roberts.
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Looking at what is happening in Ireland, Angela Roberts has advice.
"We are little bit further ahead in the progression over here than in Ireland. I see people at home going through the same thing that we are going through and have been going through over here.
"I would say that my big message would be please stay home. Don't be going out. Don't gather in groups. Follow the rules that are set in place because I am seeing the people who are so sick from this disease who maybe could have avoided being infected if they had maybe followed the social distancing requirements."
"There is no retreat. We are not going back. We are not putting up the white flag. We will persevere until we prevail over this."
A few hours later, Michael Dowling - President and the CEO of Northwell Health - which has 73,000 employees and 23 hospitals - is taking a brief break at his home.
This break is to facilitate a Skype interview for RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Dowling is considered one of the leading world experts in hospital care and crisis management and on top of increasing Covid-19 capacity in his hospitals he has advised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on how the state responds to the impact of the virus.
The conversation opens with a brief exchange on the Fitzgibbon Cup and National League hurling. Dowling played both in his youth.
He's no stranger to Ireland - visiting regularly - and he advises various groups in Ireland, including the University of Limerick, on healthcare issues.
Before long, the conversation focuses on Covid-19.
Hospitalisations have declined in New York. There is a view the state is edging its virus peak - if it's not there already.
Dowling welcomes the declining hospitalisations but says New York is far from being out of the woods yet.
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"Hopefully we are getting close to or at the peak. Hospitals are packed. I have 23 hospitals. Over 90% of all patients are Covid patients.
"The big issue for us now - including in our own health system - is as it slows down how do we get the economy back again? How do we get normal business back? If there ever is again going to be 'normal’. I think it is going to be a new 'normal'.
"It is like playing a hurling game. You don't say you won with five minutes to go. You never know what will come next. You can get a dramatic surprise in the last minute. You don't win until the game is really, really over."
The drama of what is happening does not escape Dowling. In fact, it is unlike any crisis he has dealt with before.
"There is nothing to compare with this. It completely changes the totality of the community. Everybody is impacted. Society is basically shut down. I have never seen anything like this.
"This will end, we will prevail over this but it will take a long time".
In Northwell hospitals there are 3,400 Covid-19 patients and 900 are on ventilators.
"You know that the mortality is extremely high. When I walk the floors today no patient is moving. No patient is talking.
"You know a lot of the people that you have just looked at will die. I have never been through something like this. It is eerie. It puts a new perspective on your fragility and on the fragility of society in general.
"Three months ago the economy was going great. We were going out to restaurants. We were going out to bars. We were going to social events. We were going to sports events.
"All of a sudden this invisible competitor - you don't fully understand, you don't know who has it, you don't know exactly what the cure is, you don't have a cure - disrupts everything.
"That is something that gives us pause about your place in the world and how you are going to think about the future after this.
"You will ask yourself the question: What’s important? Who is important? What do I commit myself to doing when this is all over? These are the questions I think. I doubt there are not many people that think about this these days. This is different.
"We will prevail. We will win. There is no retreat. We are not going back. We are not putting up the white flag. We will persevere until we prevail over this.
"But I think, in general, people won't be completely secure until there is a vaccine and that's a year away at least. But, it will be with us - both in Ireland and here - for quite a while," says Dowling.
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On wearing masks, Dowling says they need to be worn in public places.
"I think it makes great sense. I think it is the right thing to do. When you are out, and if you are anywhere among other people, you should wear a mask.
"If you are outside and there is any possibility that you will be within ten feet of another person wear a mask.
"Generally speaking, right now when you go out to a store here, it is very well controlled and pretty much everybody is wearing a mask. I do believe it is the right thing to do," Dowling says.
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