February 2021, Corona had its first birthday in Indonesia. In contrast to birthday celebrations that are filled with merriment, Corona's birthday was met with sadness and anger by people. It has gone way too extreme to change the lives of many people, which more often than not, to the worst condition.
The number of cases that have increased sharply lately has left many people frightened, desperate, and angry. The health workers are no exception. Like the arena of war, their safety is at stake right now. Often, they have to risk their peace of mind while carrying out their duties. This is the story of health workers with their daily struggle to fight the pandemic.
A. M. Widyantoro, A.Md. Kep - Grogol Petamburan Health Center
Do you remember at the beginning of this pandemic, the health workers had to wear raincoats while on duty because they ran out of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)? Yup, Mr. Widy was one of those health workers who experienced it.
“I wore a raincoat although there was no rain,” he joked. “In the past, we were short on mask supply. We had to reuse the N95 masks eight times, then sterilized it with UV. But now, that's not the kind of problem we face. It’s the lack of health workers. Some even have to work for 24 hours, and it’s not okay because we need to maintain our immunity as we have a high risk of getting infected,” he explained.
Aside from the decreasing number of health workers, the presence of the Delta variant also adds to the burden on our health workers. As we know, the Delta variant is more transmissible than the previous variant.
“Sometimes, patients show no symptoms. However, their condition can suddenly worsen. Every day, some patients come with oxygen saturation of only about 70-80%. They come from various ages, some are even around 20 years old. They came here because the hospital was full. Meanwhile, we can only perform limited procedures here.”
Not only in charge of treating the patients, now Mr. Widy has more responsibilities on his shoulders. He’s also in charge of taking care of the deaths. “Initially, funerals were carried out by the Monas Team. However, they’ve been overwhelmed lately, so the health workers in the Health Center had to step in and form their own team. Every day, there are at least three to four people who die, and that's the reality. In fact, we once ran out of coffins. So, now I don't only take care of Covid patients, but also those who died because of Covid.”
Through Mr. Widy's story, we can conclude that the current situation forces them to work with no time to rest. In addition, the disinformation circulating on social media and the public who aren’t properly educated add another burden for health workers. The fatigue that they feel is no longer physical but also mental. Certainly, this isn’t a normal condition. Health workers need to have a healthy body and mind to be able to take care of people.
“Now it’s hard to educate the public because they’ve started to think that Covid-19 is a normal thing. In fact, this is a worrisome situation because there are more cases now than in the beginning.” He continued, “We've been working so hard, we've risked it all, and when I read that disinformation on social media, I’m like, ‘Ugh, I feel like I just want to throw out my phone!’” he said wryly.
One day, Mr. Widy overheard an odd chatter while getting some food. “Be careful when you go to the hospital, they’ll say that you have Covid!”. Intrigued by this, he felt the need to straighten it out. “I tried to explain to him while also holding back my laughter. In the end, he said, ‘Please bring this food for your family, you don't have to pay’. Maybe he felt guilty for the things he said or simply felt sorry because of my story. It's kinda funny actually,” said Mr. Widy, chuckling.
The health workers struggled for more than a year. At the beginning of the pandemic, we heard a lot about discrimination and social sanctions experienced by health workers who are in charge of handling Covid-19 cases. Sadly, Mr. Widy had also been affected by such stigma.
“My wife had to give birth by undergoing the C-section. During a pandemic, those who need to get a surgery procedure need to get a PCR test first. My wife has no symptoms but when the test results came out, she was tested positive for Covid-19. I felt like everything went completely blank. Those Covid-19 procedures that I have memorized were dispersed. Nobody came to support and it was devastating because my wife was about to give birth but nobody gave her encouragement. Supposedly, when someone is sick, we need to give them support. Don't discriminate against them because that’ll only make them feel down.”
Amid the current difficult situation, fortunately, Mr. Widy still has his family to lean on. Sharing stories with family and his fellow health workers who share the same fate is comfort for Mr. Widy. Well, we can also help our health workers through small things. You can help by educating your friends and family who still believe in the Covid-19 hoax. Then, of course, stay at home and stick to the health protocols.
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Dr. Nanda Chaerully - Matraman Health Center
Dr. Nanda works at Matraman Health Center and since the end of January 2020, her department has been raising awareness about Covid-19 precautions.
“That time, it was still called Novel Coronavirus, not Covid-19 as it is now,” explained Dr. Nanda. She and her colleagues were still doing all their jobs indoors at that time, but they already wore masks and also maintained their distance from each other.
When the Covid-19 case began to arise, the health workers at the Matraman Health Center used to use a raincoat as their PPE. For face shields, they had to be “creative” by using bandanas, mica, and paper clips because everything was still unclear at that time. There are no standard guidelines regarding PPE for duty. Obstacles were also present because the health center doesn’t have adequate air circulation. The officials then decided to provide services in the parking area by erecting a tent. Lab, pharmacy, and poly services are all carried out in the parking area, except for the emergency room. Not only has the layout of the workplace changed, simple and non-harmful habits that are usually a no-brainer, now require tons of considerations.
“We use N95 masks, so when we’re talking to the patients, we need to be loud so they can hear us. Especially when we’re doing the service in the parking area, we sometimes need to shout a bit,” She went on, “For a simple task such as using the toilet, we need to give it a lot of thought. We honestly don’t know which toilet is safe to use because there are a lot of employees who are tested positive. So, we’re like, bismillah. We spray the toilet and wash our hands, that's for sure. We get anxious from just going to the toilet.”
Going for lunch together is just a memory for dr. Nanda now. “After the pandemic, we have to take turns for lunch. We can’t open our masks at the same time to prevent virus transmission. Taking off the mask is like taking off the hijab, we say. We can’t open our masks carelessly because we need to take care of ourselves, our families, and our friends. If someone wants to drink, we’ll tell others like ‘Hey, I wanna drink. I’ll take off my mask’. That’s the kind of situation that happens in our room,” said dr. Nanda.
During the vaccination period which is being intensively implemented, dr. Nanda is in charge of the AEFI hotline. The lack of education within the public often becomes an additional hurdle for health workers.
“Some people asked why their antigen test came back positive after vaccination. I had to explain over and over again that this isn’t caused by the vaccine. It could be that before the vaccination, the person was already infected with Covid-19, which is why the result is positive. Then, there are also these people who no longer stick to the health protocols after being vaccinated, which is wrong, because even after being vaccinated, we still have to comply with health protocols,” dr. Nanda explained.
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Providing explanations to other people sometimes is a whole lot easier than explaining it to our family. Dr. Nanda shared her story when her uncle passed away due to Covid-19. At that time, she had the hardest time convincing the family, especially her mother, father, and her aunts who have hypertension and heart disease, not to attend the funeral procession. She persuaded her family that it was for the best and the safety of the family. Fortunately, her efforts and patience paid off; her family followed her advice.
During high cases of Covid-19, dr. Nanda particularly advised every parent to be more careful with their children’s safety as the case of Covid-19 found in children is getting worse.
“For parents, please don't take your children on trips if possible. Sometimes I found that it’s just the parents who wear the masks and the children don't. Meanwhile, children also have the potential to be infected by the virus. Please do the six-step of handwashing, keep your distance, and lastly, get your Covid-19 vaccines," she ordered.
Dr. Clara Adrina - Clinical Pathology Resident, University of Indonesia
Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, Dr. Clara, who’s currently enrolled as clinical pathology resident, has to give up her study time to carry out the Covid-19 diagnosis. Before the pandemic, she only needed to be on duty four times maximum in a month. Now, she has to be in the hospital twice a week which means she needs to allocate a smaller portion of the discussion schedule with her lecturer.
“The workload has certainly increased. I need to perform PCR, antigens, and antibodies tests on health workers or patients, as well as doing the contact tracing,” said Dr. Clara.
When asked what she missed the most, Dr. Clara replied, “Back then we were free to breathe and masks weren’t mandatory. Now we’re like city prisoners, we can't go anywhere.” She continued, “The biggest problem now is that cases continue to increase, while health workers are decreasing. At work, there are a lot of my colleagues who tested positive. That means, their workload must be passed on to other colleagues which cause another issue because we need to open our lab for 24 hours. We then ask for help from other departments to handle the registration in the lab,” she explained.
“The current case of Covid-19 has skyrocketed. When I approve the PCR test results, usually the positive ones are below 50%. The PCR test is usually carried out in 5-6 batches. Each batch contains 100 samples, meaning there are 500-600 samples to check. Now, 80% of those test samples are positive. I also received news from my colleagues that the Bed Occupancy Rate of the RSCM (Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Public Hospital) emergency room reached 200%. The patients even bring their chairs because there’s no place left for them,” said Dr. Clara.
Not only the pressure from her job, Dr. Clara once completely stumped when her parents tested positive for Covid-19. Finding a hospital that could accept new patients seemed impossible because so many hospitals are full.
“Sure we can explain things regarding Covid-19 to other people, but when you find out that it’s your loved ones who got infected, oh God, it hits differently. I felt like I can’t use my logic anymore. I panicked when my parent’s oxygen saturation was dropping. Then, when I finally needed to let them into the Emergency Room, it was very hard for me to leave them. I said to myself, ‘What if this is the last time I saw them?’ because we all know, unlike other patients, Covid-19 patients can't be visited. So, please, don't let your family experience this because it's stressful,” she recalls.
Even during this dire time, some people are still lacking in understanding in keeping themselves safe. We do understand that a PCR test is needed when we start showing symptoms of Covid-19, so we'd have the right treatment. However, there was a weird occurrence that once happened to dr. Clara.
"So, this person needs a PCR test because they have Covid-19 symptoms. Then she asked, 'Doc, the results will be out by tomorrow, right?' I replied, 'Yup, right'. Then she responded, 'Oh, good, because on Saturday I have to attend a wedding'. It blew my mind. How can a person think like that? The PCR test is taken to make sure that our health is not at stake, not as a “ticket” for attending events,” Dr. Clara said.
The weighing pressure that dr. Clara experienced made her went to a psychologist and psychiatrist for help. Alongside that, to keep her sanity, she often shares her stories with friends. Watching and reading are also a source of pleasure for her.
"Please, don’t be selfish. If you feel like you’re healthy, that doesn’t mean you have the right to ignore other people’s safety. You’d never know what kind of health condition a person has and you have the potential to risk their life by transmitting the virus. All in all, we need to continue to take care of each other and continue to carry out health protocols,” said dr. Clara.
Smartcitizens, let's work together to end this pandemic. If you’re one of the lucky people who can stay at home during a pandemic, take advantage of that luxury. Our boredom because we can't hang out is certainly not comparable to the hard work of health workers who have fought to protect us. Our safety is our responsibility, not just the health workers. So, we must always be diligent about health protocols to protect each other. Moreover, if you happen to stumble across violations during the Public Activity Restriction in Jakarta, send your report to JAKI which you can download on your phone through the Google Play Store and App Store. Make sure your report is correct by following the proper reporting guide here. Lastly, register yourself for vaccination via JAKI or visit vaksinasi-corona.jakarta.go.id. This way, we can hope that Indonesia and Jakarta recover soon!
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