Dr Anne Messman, a veteran emergency room physician in Detroit, US, knew something was wrong when she developed insomnia and became unusually irritated with people she loved.

She began experiencing persistent sleepless nights in late March, around the time seven patients with COVID-19 died in a single nine-hour shift. But she did not think her insomnia was due to the dramatic one-day death toll.

As an ER doctor, death was no stranger to her.

Perhaps, it was that the victims’ families had to be informed by phone because relatives are barred from hospitals fighting the highly infectious disease.