The World Pays Tribute to Health Care Workers.
CURNOW: So this is the scene across London a few hours ago as the United Kingdom came out into the streets to honor the national health service workers who are saving lives in hospitals around the country. Now those were actually just residents of one street in London. Doctors and nurses across the world are overworked and overwhelmed and overstretched. So no doubt they are very relieved to be getting that kind of support, but people around the globe are also trying to find other ways to say thank you as Issa Soares now reports.</s>ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In lockdown, isolation or in quarantine the world is uniting briefly opening their windows and doors and honoring their health care heroes. The hundreds and thousands of men and women around the world putting their health and their lives on the line for all of us. They do it out of duty or calling or passion. But still, the world applauds. The tributes have been global from Spain, where the medical staff came out to welcome the recognition, to Italy, France, the United States, and right around the world. These are some of the faces of our health care heroes. The soldiers on the frontlines. And they have the physical and emotional scars to show for it. Their faces exhausted and bruised for wearing tight protective masks for hours on end. But the scars have all go deeper. Ruben Herrera (PH) is an emergency room nurse from Spain and tells me he hasn't seen anything like this in his 14 years in the job.</s>RUBEN HERRERA, EMERGENCY ROOM NURSE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) At this hour, really, I feel as if my chest is about to explode. I've spent most of my evening injecting patients in wheelchairs because there are no free beds available, not even to put out in the corridors.</s>SOARES: Across Italy medical staff say conditions remain dire.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) We're working in a state of very high stress and tension. Psychological tension has gone through the roof. Unfortunately we can't contain the situation in Lombardy. There's a high level of contagion and we're not even counting the dead anymore.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) All the doctors and nurses have been selected to give a hand in a situation that is something like a movie. If you didn't see this you wouldn't believe it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) It's hard above all to see people who are sick and don't have family close to them in this moment.</s>SOARES: And here in the U.K. experts say the peak could still be weeks away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to rest</s>SOARES: So to slow down the virus they're calling on all of us to do more than just clap.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) I'm Francesco, and I want to say this. I'm getting applause when they see me because they know I'm an ICU nurse. That doesn't make sense. They way to thank us nurses is by staying at home.</s>SOARES: Isa Soares, CNN, London.</s>CURNOW: So you can find out how you can help feed the hungry, protect health professionals, aid refugees and support service workers during this pandemic, please do go to CNN.com/impact. So that's the show for now. I will be back, though, with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM just ahead. Stay with us.