Duty comes first for them

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 4

The last time Dr Yuvraj Narang, district nodal officer for Covid, met his son was on March 14, his first birthday. Working 24x7 to mitigate the spread of the virus, Dr Narang is one of the several doctors working on the frontlines in country’s fight against the Covid.

Dr Yuvraj said, “I miss my son and family, but, in such unprecedented situation, our responsibility to serve the public increases. We are doing our best to win the battle against the Covid.”

Similarly, Dr Sumeet Singh, district epidemiologist, has been longing to spend time with his five-year-old twins and wife. The only time he visits his house is at night, just to sleep. “My twin sons have not seen me for days now. By the time I reach home, usually after 10pm, everybody is asleep,” said Sumeet.

In fact, this routine of staying away from their family, doing work under stressful environment has become a new normal for the doctors, battling on the frontline against the coronavirus.

Patiala Civil Surgeon Harish Malhotra said the entire Health Department has been working round-the-clock. He said, “Taking all the precautionary measures, we are working tirelessly to stem the spread of the virus. All the senior medical officers and rapid response teams have to remain on toes – throughout the day.”

Fear of carrying virus at home looms large

In the midst of the Covid outreak, doctors and other medical staff are under constant fear of carrying the virus home with them.

Harish says that he always washes his hands, thoroughly sanitises his personal items, puts his clothes straight into the laundry and takes a hot bath on entering the house.

Dr Sumeet says he puts up his clothes directly to washing machines as soon as he steps into his house.

He said, “The risk of carrying the virus in our profession is always there. However, we are taking all the possible precautions and are maintaining a physical distance at our houses also.”

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