Staying away from families, Kashmir health care professionals soldier on in fight against Covid

Srinagar April 16: As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in Jammu and Kashmir, the frontline workers — doctors, nurses, health care workers — are carrying out their duties amid the danger of exposing their families to the illness.

So far, six doctors and a nurse have tested positive for the virus.

Dr Mir Waseem is a physician at the Covid-19 centre of Government Medical College Hospital Baramulla, where 40 people have tested positive for coronavirus.

Waseem has not met his children and wife since March 18 when Kashmir recorded its first coronavirus positive case — a woman from Old City Srinagar.

“I have shifted my wife and kids to my in-laws’ house in Srinagar so that they don’t contract the virus from me. I have been in touch with them through social media,” Mir said.

Like other health care professionals, Waseem, too, is under stress being on frontline in war against coronavirus. “We (doctors) are soldiers in this war against coronavirus which makes us anxious at times because we are cut off from our families. However, it is gratifying if we could make a difference in the lives of our people,” he said.

Unlike in the past, Waseem spends most of his time in GMC hospital Baramulla to treat the Covid-19 patients suffering from what he calls an “invisible enemy”.

“I go home late, wash my clothes, and stay away from my parents. It’s become a routine for the past one month now,” he said.

For Waseem, coronavirus poses a major challenge to the medical professionals, who have to attend to their duties and also prevent their families from exposing them to the virus.

“The greatest part of being a doctor is being able to care for people. We are in difficult times. Like anybody else, we are also vulnerable, susceptible to the virus. But we are on the frontline against the dreaded virus and will figure this out,” he said.

At least 300 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir, including 246 in Kashmir alone. Of them, 36 have recovered and four died.

Doctors said 78 per cent Covid-19 patients in Jammu and Kashmir were asymptomatic while the rest of the patients suffered from shortness of breath, cough, and fever.

Many doctors and other health care workers in Kashmir are putting up in hotels, afraid of infecting their families.

At two premier Covid hospitals of Kashmir – Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and Chest Disease (CD) hospital – doctors are working in two-week shifts before going into quarantine in a hotel.

Dr Muhammad Hussain (name changed) of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is a post-graduate doctor at the SKIMS Covid-19 ward.

Hussain is going home first time after March 10 when the Covid ward was made operational at SKIMS.

“Our duty schedule is tight and we can’t really relax. We work 6-hour or 12-hour schedules for two weeks straight and then go into two-week quarantine in a hotel before another batch of doctors join the duty,” he said.

Hussain said he would be meeting his parents after more than a month and would ensure nothing happens when he comes home.

“I’ll try to avoid hugs from my mother and I know she will break down on seeing me. My only fear is that our family members are at risk because they can catch infection from us while we are asymptomatic,” Hussain said.

As J&K is nowhere near to flattening the Covid-19 curve, a sense of emotional overwhelming has crept in the minds of health care professionals due to exhaustive duty hours and longing of reunion with their families.

“We want to crush the curve instead of just flattening it because we can’t live without the emotional support of families for long,” he said.

The Tribune