In Australia, thousands of nurses in New South Wales have walked off the job in the first strike taken by Australian nurses in almost a decade. They’re demanding limits on nurse-to-patient ratios and better pay, as healthcare workers grapple with Australia’s first major surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cathy: “We deserve better. We need more staff on the wards. Our patients aren’t safe. Most of the time the staff are overworked, and it’s stressed. And it’s just not fair. It’s not fair. We don’t ask for much.”

Adrian: “We’ve been struggling. A lot of our nurses have been burnt out, doing doubles, struggling every day.”