“We were all scared. In fact, all my co-workers had similar fears when the number of positive cases started increasing.
I am an accredited social health activist (ASHA), working in this field for the past 15 years, but I have never experienced a pandemic situation before. Even my husband, who is always supportive of my work otherwise, asked me, ‘What is the need to work so hard during these critical times? What if you fall sick?’
I gave it a thought for a moment but I realised that this is the time for public healthcare workers like myself to step up. If not me, who else?
We are chosen to give people the best health care possible, so I continued to work even during the lockdown.
Initially we were asked to check the health condition of people in the suspected list. Later, as the number of cases started increasing, we started conducting enquires about the health of all the primary and secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients. We are also conducting health surveys by visiting all the houses in the contaminated areas.
I leave home at 7:00 a.m. everyday and complete my work by 5:00 p.m. I do not find time for lunch when I’m on field in the scorching heat. During door-to-door surveys, people shut their doors on me in the name of social distancing, assuming that I am also a carrier of the virus. There have been instances when people warned me to keep away from their children. There is a lot of misconception among public with regard to the spread of this virus. I tell them, look at me – I have a face mask. I wear gloves and wash my hands with soap every half an hour. Has anything happened to me?
Most of the pregnant women who we regularly check are afraid to meet us from the fear of contacting the virus.
I wish to convey that we are taking all the necessary precautions like wearing the personal protective equipment (PPE) provided by the government. People should not encourage a negative attitude towards on-field health care workers. Disrespecting us will only demoralize us. People must understand that we are all human too and are doing our work as a service towards the society. We must act together with collective responsibility to fight this situation.”
#Frontlinewarriors #COVID19 #Healthcare #CoronaVirusPandemic #StayhomeStaySafe #CoronaVirusLockdown #Awareness #CoronaWarriors #SocialDistancing #Survey #SocialDistance #Coronavirusoutbreak #AshaWorkers #Responsibility #Citizens #Healthcare #MaskIndia #Government #PublicSafety #Health #StoriesofIndia #Publichealth #HealthEmergency #Protection #People #India #Telangana #Hyderabad #HumansofHyderabad