Corona Diaries - 16
- Hawra Al-Matrouk
- May 3, 2020
- 6 min read

Home quarantine feels like jail sometimes; you feel so restricted. You’re physically fine and capable of so much yet you’re unable to leave the house or do anything. I miss work. I see how my colleagues are struggling at work; I would love to help yet am unable to do anything. The first week was nice, a chance to recuperate and reconnect with family and lost time. Long phone calls with friends are always beautiful. I write every other day, it’s a chance to reflect and put down thoughts into words. I’ve started a painting and found out that its very therapeutic, something about mixing colours and long brush strokes is very calming. I’ve shopped online a couple of times but there’s nowhere I can wear anything I’ve bought. I’m watching Ramadhan shows; something I haven’t done in the longest time. I’ve developed a routine; I like having plans and a timetable. I’ve set time to paint and other times to write and do other things around my room. Now the second week has started and I’m running out of ideas.
I’ve been told I was one of the patients that had a good hospital course and left the hospital quite early. Some of my friends are in hospital for more than 25 days and others have been moved to quarantine areas as they still have positive swabs. I’ve been blessed with a short hospital stay and manageable symptoms. I can only be grateful; home quarantine is a million times better than being in hospital.
Many doctors and other healthcare workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past while. MOH released a number a few days ago: 105. Since then many more have been diagnosed. I personally know 12 of those people. Some names are released into the press and others aren’t. True it may be less than 1% of the healthcare worker population and that may not seem like a large number. However, that doesn’t take into account all the staff that is home quarantined because they were in close contact with the affected. My team lost 8 members to home quarantine when I was admitted. That made day work and oncalls very heavy on those still working. And that’s just me. What if you take into account the 105 staff members; count at least 10 members for each of those and that brings up the number up to 1,050. That is certainly more than 10% and that’s not a good number of staff to lose, especially during a time when we need extra staff numbers to cover the amount of patients during these exceptional circumstances. Don’t forget, we care for all patients, not just COVID-19 patients. We still have elderly patients admitted with strokes and sepsis, not related to COVID-19.
A lot have asked me whether it was my fault that I wasn’t wearing PPE or full protection when I examined my patient. I can only answer that even if I was wearing full protection, I would still have gotten it. At the time, my patient had been cleared from the COVID team and she’d had two negative swabs. Since I was diagnosed, full PPE has been provided for all staff, including goggles and since then no further staff from my department have been affected, thankfully. Doctors and all healthcare workers need to be extra cautious during this period. We certainly cannot afford to lose any more doctors.
We are all going through these exceptional circumstances together. We all need to stick together and become united. I think that’s the only way that we might get through this. We all have to act as a team. I can only speak about my hospital setting because that’s something I know and understand and can speak about. I have seen wonderful unions being made during these times. There were people that had clashes with other people. There were departments that refused to be helpful. However, during the “Corona Era” everyone has become cooperative and willing to help. Sub-specialty doctors are now covering medical patients; they have even joined the COVID teams in all hospitals. Others have willingly volunteered to cover quarantine areas. Others are picking up extra shifts and doing work they’re not supposed to. At the end of the day, we’re doing all this for our patients, for our hospital, for Kuwait.
I can’t speak for other lines of duty however everyone is getting up everyday with a purpose. Whether it’s a policeman covering a shift during quarantine time, a paramedic driving patients to where they’re supposed to go, a nurse covering an extra shift in COVID ward, a cashier wearing his mask and doing his job so people get their much needed items, a news reporter leaving his family and heading to work to give us the news or the workers working on the roads at night. Every single person has a role. Even the people staying at home during home quarantine, by obeying orders and staying put, they’re doing their job and helping us and helping our country.
My auntie has 3 children that are studying abroad. Two of them chose to come back and one stayed to finish his exams. Of the two that returned, one had a fever in the airport and was taken to quarantine for 3 days. Since then her swab was negative and she’s been asymptomatic so she was sent home. Ever since then, my auntie has kept them in their own rooms with their doors locked. She sees them from her garden and they look down at her from their balconies. That’s how it should be done. That’s the definition of home quarantine. Imagine if everyone listened and did what they’re supposed to. We could get through this quicker however not everyone listens.
People are still having gatherings in their houses with family and friends. People coming from abroad are not adhering to home quarantine laws. People are having buffets and gatherings in their houses that have more than 15 people. They are buying Ramadhan clothes and showing them off on social media. Some are getting exemptions to go to their relatives’ houses daily to eat Futour. Exemptions were supposed to be for emergencies and hospital visits, now they’re used to deliver food to family houses.
When will these people learn? It may be that 90% of our population is adherent to the rules, however the 10% will ruin it for everyone else. You’re ruining it for your country. For the past few days, we’ve had daily numbers of more than 300 of new infected cases. That’s an extremely frightening number. That means we will go up by 1,000 every 3-4 days. I’ve just listened to the press conference and the numbers for yesterday are 364 new cases; 348 of them are in contact with others.
Maybe the numbers aren’t scary to you because you don’t know anyone affected. What if a family member was affected? How would you feel about your gatherings? What if a family member was sick and in the ICU? What if a family member passed away? Will you be scared then? But what would be the point at that stage?
We can still prevent this. We can still make the numbers less. We can still attempt to control the chaos. However, soon we will be unable to. All Kuwaiti hospitals have COVID patients now. Jaber is full and Mishref is nearly full. The quarantine areas are filling up quickly. What’s next? Soon we will not have enough beds to care for non-COVID patients, because all our beds will be occupied by COVID ones. Are you still not scared?
I’ve been scared ever since February. I’ve known that chaos was coming. I wish our Kuwaiti population would have prevented this, however chaos is coming. All we can do is prepare and wait and hope we do not lose any more healthcare workers or loved ones. Nearly all my friends and colleagues are in self-quarantine. They’re isolating themselves from their loved ones and families. We are not seeing our families or hugging them. We are all doing all this to protect them. Why can’t you do the same? You protect your families by staying away, because if you don’t you might lose one of them. And that’s something you don’t want to experience, it’s the worst pain imaginable; a pain that never leaves you.
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
- Christina Rossetti
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