FABIans Professors Brenda and Mike Wingfield are on lock down in their home in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Brenda shares some of her thoughts on this unexpected twist in their lives.

We are very appreciative of the fact that we have a garden in which to sit in when our computer screens get to be too much. We realise that this is a special privilege.  Occasionally we also take the opportunity to make a fire and braai rather than our normal dinner routine and this also helps to break the rather rigid schedule. A surprising perspective is that I seem to be busier now than normal.  This is likely due to the many video conferences (they seem to take more time than face to face meetings), a rise in email traffic and the fact that our students have time to write and are sending us increasing numbers of documents to read and review.   As an example of activities today, we have just participated in the "Time Higher Education (THE) Southern Africa Impact Forum”.  The THE rankings will be released on 22 April and they gave us some preview of the rankings. We are hopeful that the University of Pretoria will feature well in these rankings!

Today marks the sixth day that we have not left our home.  Given that the average incubation period for SARS CoV-2 is just over five days, we are hoping this means that none of us have been infected by the virus. We read many scientific papers about SARS CoV-2 and as microbiologists (broad sense) realise how little is known and how unprepared the world has been for this crisis.  The chance of being infected by this particular virus is shockingly high! And now I realise that I must go out and do some essential grocery shopping. This will lead to inevitable exposure so I am planning with great care.  While the lockdown has meant long days mainly working on our computers, we are mindful of the fact that many of our colleagues have far greater challenges. For example, our son and daughter-in-law are on lockdown with their two-year-old daughter. While we have enjoyed some good WhatsApp discussions with them, I can see that trying to work at home, while at the same time caring for an infant, is beset with complications. I then reminisce back to the days when our children were infants and how the weekends and school holidays (while filled with many good things) could also be very hard work. Certainly not terribly conducive to maintaining a busy research life. A team effort between us and help from family and friends was so important in those days. And I realise that for many of our colleagues, under current circumstances, this is not currently possible.