To cater to patients infected with COVID-19, healthcare personnel have come up with a social media campaign urging people to stay home ‘I stay at work for you, you stay at home for us’. Many doctors, nurses and healthcare personnel are sharing posts with pictures of them on duty urging public to stay at home hoping to strike a chord with the public. 

Muscat Daily spoke to a few healthcare workers and doctors in Oman to know more about the campaign and the risks involved in these trying times.

Dr Janan Ahmed Abdullah al Abduwani, consultant ENT, Al Nahdha Hospital, said, “I and my fellow healthcare providers feel we are entrusted with this huge responsibility especially in times like these. We are at the frontline and like the soldiers of Oman want to serve our country and the people to our best ability.”

On what people should bear in mind during this outbreak, Dr Janan said, “I wish the public will realise the danger we are all in and that all these measures are being taken to reduce the impact and keep them safe. We leave our families and homes to go to work to help others and while doing that we put our families at risk too but we try our best to take all precautionary measures. So please stay home, reduce exposure, don’t put yourself and us in danger.”

John Perianayagam, nursing head at Al Hayat International Hospital, said that it is well established that healthcare workers have a considerably higher risk of COVID-19. “To reduce the transmission, universal barrier precautions. Good communication with COVID-19 services can be very useful in detecting and treating patients with COVID-19,” he said.

Dr Dilip Singhvi, specialist, Internal Medicine Apollo Hospital, said healthcare workers are always at a risk but there are ways to be safe. “Most important thing is to identify such patients, their travel history, so that the health workers can be alert.”

Saada al Nuumaani, a mother of four, said that it is our responsibility as citizens to stand with medical professionals. “We all have to work together with medical professionals. By staying at home, we are helping our bothers and sisters in the medical field.”