As the death toll soars, will a lockdown be enough to stop the UK’s mutant COVID-19 strain?

On an evening shift in a busy London hospital last week, intensive care nurse Dave Carr came across a senior doctor standing next to a vending machine.

She was crying, he recalled, and when he asked what was wrong, she simply said she could not decide if she wanted a cup of tea or coffee.

It was a tipping point at the end of a long, hard shift.

For Dave Carr, the moment typified the strain all British medical staff are under as hospitals struggle to cope with the alarming surge in COVID-19 patients.

A senior nurse, he’d retired in April last year but was back in the ward three days later to assist as the first wave of COVID-19 took hold.

Now, he’s coaxing his staff through a “horrific” second peak of the pandemic.

“I’m really fearful of this…