On what it has been like working the frontlines during COVID-19:
I remember when the pandemic first began and we would hear the news from China, nobody thought we would ever reach what we have reached today.
When the first case was recorded here, it was like a movie; whatever we saw happening on television in China started happening here. Some people were between life and death, and all of a sudden there was a complete lockdown, and us doctors had permits so when we drove home at night we saw that all streets were empty and quiet as if it was a zombie movie. Policemen were all around – Allah bless them –they made sure everyone followed lockdown instructions to contain the spread of the virus. They were so kind to us and called us frontline fighters and thanked us.
The difficult thing to experience was that we had to isolate ourselves from our families as we are dealing with an unknown virus. At that time it wasn’t clear how it spreads. All I kept thinking was ‘Will I get my family infected?’ And I decided to rent an apartment away from them. I spent such a long time away from them, and I miss them so much. My mother is very proud of me and calls me every night to make sure I’m okay. My little brother Yousef doesn’t understand the situation and runs to hug me whenever I come home. I stop him and he feels sad. Thank God, we passed the difficult phase, and I hope we managed to contain the spread as numbers are declining, hopefully to zero.
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