Hello, I'm Nula McGovern on the BBC World Service and this is BBC OS, conversations about coronavirus.

As countries in South America prepare for an increase in cases.

We hear about some of the hardest hit communities in Colombia,

but there is hope in the form of Northern Italy

where doctors and nurses working in intensive care at one hospital

are finally free of COVID-19 patients.

Incredible because you don't have to use so many protection. You can drink a coffee and the atmosphere is much more comfortable. You feel free.

The coronavirus is affecting the world at different rates and every

country is at a different stage of the pandemic. Apart from border

restrictions, life in New Zealand, for instance, it's virtually back to normal,

while South Africa recently recorded its highest ever single day increase in coronavirus cases. It resulted in the government imposing a

nighttime curfew, the compulsory wearing of masks outdoors and reimposing a ban on

alcohol to reduce pressure on the health system.

I'm Dr. Pumozon-Rambi, a general surgery and trauma doctor from Johannesburg, South Africa. I've just finished operating on one of my

elective non-Covid patients which in this time is becoming increasingly rare because we have all been pulled in from every department to help with the COVID crisis.

It's been quite a strenuous time for us in Johannesburg. I work at one of the biggest

hospitals and we have seen that over the time since we've had the beginning of the lockdown, the numbers have increased slightly in the beginning and I think we're now reaching our peak.

This has meant that we dismantle a lot of our other departments

such as surgery to help with the pandemic

and see purely medical COVID patients.

It's been quite strenuous when the introduction of

alcohol was reinstated because it means all the alcohol related trauma starts

...