“A t the time it felt like a devil’s bargain – it was horrible, but it was what [we thought] we had to do to keep people safe,” says Amy of the “devastating” and “terrifying” restrictions that led to her maternal grandparents being locked down in separate care homes during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eva and Eric had been married for more than 60 years when her dementia and his increased frailty meant they needed separate residential support. When the first lockdown was announced in March 2020, however, it in effect cut them off from each other and their granddaughter, to whom they had been especially close after the early death of Amy’s mother.

“I spoke to Grandad on the phone when it was possible – it often wasn’t possible due to staff not being able to take him a phone – and he was desperately lonely, isolated in his room, unable to talk to anyone because they were worried about [the spread of Covid],” says Amy, 39, who lives in Milton Keynes and works for a large software company.…