. ZHL Rajasthan appreciates the enormous risks taken by drivers and emergency medical technicians deployed on ambulances with advanced life support systems are often overlooked as the spotlight is often on doctors and nurses. They are among several unsung heroes making an enormous personal sacrifice to ensure India doesn’t give up in the fight against the pandemic.

In the midst of a pandemic – COVID -19 Ambulance Staff and Healthcare workers are at the front line to fight it by risking their and their family lives while transferring the patients. They are worried about themselves and their family safety. Here are some stories shared by Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd Ambulance Staff.

Sharing with you a story of an Ambulance driver, 29-year-old Sunil Vishwakarma, who took Corona patients to a regular hospital, says he has been out of the house for 31 days. So far, more than 100 patients have been taken to the hospital by him in Madhya Pradesh. He has done this while staying away from his family and made his home in the police station itself for months. While his family of wife, 4 month and 5-year-old son who lives in Indore amidst hardships. Sunil has done this to avoid his family getting infected. When the lockdown happened everybody was heading towards their hometown. RoshanLal, a Paramedic who has served over 84 Corona patients in Punjab by deciding to stay there to serve people leaving his family in Rajasthan.

There are months when the children’s were unable to see and stay with their fathers [due to fear of infection] as the drivers and technicians first carry an infected patient in their lap or on a stretcher before they are put into an ambulance. They come into direct contact with Covid patients daily and are unsung heroes of our society; their sacrifices are not praised by anyone. They keep on working wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) kits for hours, despite the fact that they are mistreated both by family members of patients and doctors or staff of hospitals sometimes.

Ziqitza Healthcare the organization that is behind managing the call centre for 108 Ambulance and 104 Helplines ensured the staff safety on the field and at the workplace ensured sitting arrangements were done with social distancing norms, fumigation of office at frequent intervals or providing buses for their transfers or making food and stay arrangements. All this was done along with efficient management of shift timings are managed from 12hrs to 24hrs to cater to heavy call inflows. The Call Centre team while addressing the heavy inflow of calls stayed months away from their family to ensure they did not pass on the infection to their family members.

Since its declaration as the national helpline on COVID, the Ziqitza Limited operated 108 and 104 Helpline centres have witnessed a sudden in the inflow of the calls from 2,000 per day to approximately 20,000 -22,000 calls a day; the mix includes both general health inquiries and COVID-19 specific calls. Wherein fear and anxiety caught everyone’s mind, the 104 Helpline in last 180 days has received varied nature of calls asking about COVID, symptoms, precautions, treatment, first line of actions required, hospitals handling COVID, tests to be conducted, self-isolation etc .To manage the overnight 10x increase in the calls, the capacity in the call centre was increased by Ziqitza. Seeing their rent less contribution Ziqitza Rajasthan appreciates all the Healthcare workers who are working selflessly during these tough times.