Covid heroes

If a doctor remains at home, who will treat patients in this time of crisis? I will resume my duty to fight Covid,’ said Dr Anjali of a Karnal hospital. Her resolve is doubly remarkable, given that she has just recovered from Covid-19, which she had contracted from a patient earlier. It sums up very much the heroic work being put in by doctors, nurses and paramedics, policemen and other responders handling Covid patients 24×7. Armed sometimes with not even proper protective gear — an issue that needs urgent addressing — the real-life heroes are working selflessly, bravely confronting the demonic coronavirus, which is always insidiously hovering over them. With some Covid-19 patients also being asymptomatic, it cost a Mumbai hospital dearly as its 26 nurses and three doctors caught the infection. In Tamil Nadu, of the 1,075 infected as of April 13, eight are doctors and five nurses. Hundreds of healthcare professionals are quarantined in the country. Beginning with Li Wenliang, the iconic doctor of Wuhan who first sounded the alarm about the coronavirus and later died of it, the list of heroes is, inspiringly, swelling.

No less courageous in the lockdown times has been the duty of the likes of an ACP in Ludhiana who tested Covid-positive days after overseeing the smooth movement of vegetables in the mandi. Cops have shown their humane face as never before: rushing patients to hospitals, distributing food to poor, guarding localities and ensuring social distancing. Every role in this fight is crucial.

The job of these stoic stars is rendered tougher by the heart-wrenching necessity of them to keep a distance from their families, including infants and young children. To keep his family safe from himself, a doctor in Bhopal preferred to sleep in his car. It is reprehensible that some warriors on coronavirus duty have had to suffer attacks or face stigma and even eviction from rented homes in some quarters. They deserve nothing but accolades, just like the sanitary workers who were applauded and garlanded at every doorstep by the grateful residents of a street in Patiala, as they went about collecting garbage in their modest cart. No role is small in this fight.