While many of us shelter in place and prepare for long lockdowns, healthcare workers continue to battle on the frontlines against the novel coronavirus.
Doctors and nurses have pictured themselves covered head-to-toe in personal protective gear and with red marks on their faces after spending 12 or more hours wearing goggles in the ICU.
Many of them say they don’t feel like ‘heroes’ but that they want people to understand the challenges they face as they treat seriously ill patients.
Across the world, more than 372,000 people have been infected with the virus and more than 16,300 people have died.
Doctors and nurses shared photos of themselves following a day of taking care of coronavirus patients (left, Italy). One of them is Dr Nicola Sgarbi, 35 (right), from Modena, Italy, who took a selfie of his face covered in red marks after wearing goggles for 13 hours in the ICU
Sherry Dong, 25, a nurse at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Maryland, shared a photo of her and her colleague in gowns, gloves and face shields (pictured)
One of the physicians on the front lines is 35-year-old Dr Nicola Sgarbi from Modena, Italy – whose country has the second-highest nub
Dr Sgarbi posted a photo on Facebook on March 13 after spending 13 hour in the ICU treating patients for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
In the photo, the doctor has his goggles lifted above his face with red marks under his eyes and on the bridge of his nose.
‘I don’t love selfies. Yesterday, though, I took this photo. After 13 hours in ICU after taking off all my protective devices, I took a selfie,’ he wrote on Facebook.
‘I am not and I don’t feel like a hero. I am a normal person, who loves his job and who, now more than ever, is proud and proud to do it by giving all himself on the forefront lines together with other wonderful people (doctors, nurses, technicians, cleaners).’
The post has gone viral, with more than 240,000 likes and more than 74,000 shares.
‘I mainly took the photo for two reasons. Firstly, to send it to my partner, to tell her that I had finished my shift at work and that I was on my way home, slightly bruised,’ Sgarbi told CNN.
‘Secondly, to show it to my 1-year-old daughter when she will have grown up. I will be telling her about this moment.’
But it’s not just doctors. Nurses too have been spending several hours on the frontline.
Many of them say they don’t feel like ‘heroes’ but that they want people to understand the challenges they face as they treat seriously ill patients. Around the world more than 372,000 people have been infected and more than 16,300 people have died. Pictured: A doctor from the Czech Republic, left, and a doctor or nurse from Italy
Registered nurse Sherry Dong, 25, works in the ICU at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
On Friday, she shared a photo on Reddit of herself and her co-worker waring disposable gowns, disposable gloves and face shields.
‘Greetings from the front lines of COVID-19 at Johns Hopkins Hospital ICU!’ she wrote.
By Monday evening, it received more than 2,200 comments and several Reddit ‘awards’.
‘My heart is grateful and my mind is heavy seeing medical professionals all over the world putting themselves at risk battling against this outbreak,’ she told CNN.
‘I think the medical community has found various ways of coping through social media outlets.’
She also asked that anyone who has any protective equipment to done it to hospitals as officials fear they are close to running out.
At a White House press briefing, Dr Deborah Birx, the response coordinator on the White House coronavirus task force, discussed specimens specified by lab workers.
She said 28 percent of submitted specimens in New York City are positive in the area compared to eight to 15 percent in other areas of the country.