The North West Ambulance Service are struggling with a spike in staff sickness from Covid-19, which is making it hard to meet the demand for 999 responses. A decision is made to ask for military personnel to help, with military recruits put through three days of intensive training before they can join the paramedics working on the frontline. Once training is complete they will be able to respond to lower-category calls, which account for 20 per cent of the service's workload, freeing up ambulances for more critical calls. The service has also drafted in agency staff to work as call handlers.