Areema Nasreen is on a ventilator at Walsall Manor hospital in West Midlands

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

A 36-year-old nurse described as “normally fit and healthy” is critically ill in intensive care after contracting coronavirus.

Areema Nasreen is on a ventilator at Walsall Manor hospital in the West Midlands where she has worked for 16 years.

Her family say Nasreen, who has three children, and lives in Walsall, has no underlying health issues and first developed symptoms including body aches, a fever and a cough 10 days ago. She tested positive for the virus on Friday.

Her sister Kazeema Nasreen, 22, who works as a healthcare assistant at the same hospital, told the Guardian that her sister, who was “fighting for her life”, was “an amazing sister who loved being a nurse and was always helping others no matter what.

“She was fit and healthy. Anyone can get it, my sister is 36. I hope the government is going to impose a lockdown because people aren’t taking this seriously.

“No other family should go through what we’re doing. I want everyone to know how dangerous this is.”

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She added that Areema had not being working directly with patients who had tested positive for Covid-19. Kazeema said: “She could’ve picked it up anywhere, she was doing agency work at other hospitals. They give you protection in the hospital, we had gloves, masks, gowns.”

Although she said the family were “heartbroken”, her sister also praised staff at the hospital for their “faultless” care for her sister.

A unnamed doctor at the hospital told Sky News that his colleague’s condition had “deteriorated very quickly” in the space of 24 hours.

Nasreen, whose husband and three children are in isolation and unable to visit her, qualified as a staff nurse in January last year and works at the hospital’s acute medical unit.

She has been working at Walsall Manor hospital since 2003, working in housekeeping and as a healthcare assistant before studying to become a nurse.

In the UK, 5,745 people have tested positive for Covid-19, while 282 people have died of the respiratory illness.

Last week, the government said it was investigating a rise in coronavirus deaths in the West Midlands, while Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood suggested religious convictions and fears of social isolation were linked to the increase.