Even for those lucky few that have a roof over their heads, food on the table, and loving families to keep them company, a 60+ day quarantine is still stressful. 

We are living in unprecedented times. Our homes were a sanctuary away from work, but work-from-home has disrupted any semblance of work-life balance. On one hand, happy marriages and stable relationships face new challenges because quarantine has brought previously unidentified differences to the forefront. On the other, friends, families and couples have been suddenly separated with no clear understanding of when they might see each other again. Migrant workers walk for days to get home only to collapse from exhaustion. To top it all off, cyclones and locusts make this year seem nothing less than apocalyptic.

While 2020 has hurt everyone in some way, our heroes on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic face all the same anxieties while simultaneously risking their lives everyday.

In order to celebrate these COVID heroes, Aara Health will be doing special features on our doctors, nurses, policemen and women, delivery service people, and so many other people. They deserve our gratitude in abundance. 

Pankti, a nurse on the frontlines, has spent countless hours without any breaks saving the lives of so many Covid-19 victims. Many of those patients did not make it, and to those, she served as a friend, family member, and doctor. She stood by their side, holding phones to so many of their ears as they said goodbye. 

Healthcare workers like Pankti risk their lives daily without receiving the appropriate tools and necessary support from the Indian healthcare system, to fight this disease effectively.  Pankti used the same hospital-given N95 mask, till someone in her personal network gave her an industrial mask purchased at an inflated price.  

Without Rakshak ki Raksha, more 10,000 frontline workers across 900 towns and villages in India would not have received the ‘Raksha Kits’ which include triple layered cloth masks (SS-96), face shields, goggles, gloves, sanitizers, and soaps. The recipients of these packages are women, earning meager salaries, protecting communities against the spread of Covid-19 through containment efforts. Despite these care packages, many of these women have already tested positive for Covid-19. Rakshak ki Raksha, like many others, fears easing the lockdown will exacerbate the number of people infected.

So many people are working swiftly and silently to save others and receiving no credit for all their hard work. With over 5.8 million cases and 360k deaths at the time of this writing, it takes strength, courage, and so much selflessness to be on the frontlines of this pandemic.

Aara Health hopes our ongoing feature of different COVID-19 Heroes and their stories will remind you why it is so important to stay in and stay safe, even when all you want to do is step outside. If you leave, you risk infecting someone, and that infected individual will only stress our already overcrowded system.