A DOCTOR has issued a heartfelt plea to the public to stay at home in order to prevent local NHS services from being overwhelmed.

Despite the Government warning us all to stay at home in the fight against coronavirus, many are still not taking the warnings seriously.

Dr Jacquie Moon, from the Quaker Lane Surgery, in Richmond, said she had never faced the challenge like the one posed by the coronavirus.

Dr Moon she was urging the population of Richmondshire to “please, please stay at home”.

She added: “Currently the hospitals, local doctors, nurses, carers and managers are frantically trying to get organised in preparation for the coronavirus.

“This virus spreads before you even know you’ve caught it, by the time you have symptoms you will have passed it on to many others.

“These others could be anyone, it is unselective, uncaring and cruel. I hope for the majority, it will be mild or just a bad attack of flu.”

The GP said that the real problem was not the 80 per cent who would get over the virus in one or two weeks.

“It’s the 20 per cent of patients, those who are on certain drugs, those that have other medical problems and those aged 70 and above, who are going to need a bit more support — some oxygen or even a ventilator and life support.

“I do not want to alarm and frighten people but we have no vaccine or antiviral medication, we have only staying at home and social distancing to reduce the spread of the infection into the population.

“Our local health service will be overwhelmed if we do not all make sacrifices in the days, weeks ahead.”

Dr Moon added: “To quote a colleague, these extreme restrictions may seem in the end a little anticlimactic because it’s really hard to feel like you’re saving the world when you’re watching Netflix on your couch but, if we do this right, nothing happens.

“Yes, a successful shelter in place means that you will feel like it was all for nothing.

"And you would be right because ‘nothing’ means that nothing happened to your family and that’s what we are going for here.

“So please, please, stay at home, protect yourself, your family, carers and the NHS Staff who will be working hard to look after everyone."

“Your actions can make a difference, they could even save a life.”

Anyone with symptoms of the virus are asked not to attend GP surgeries but to call NHS 111 for advice.