Working on COVID-19 duty has provided immense happiness to this 25-year-old animator attached to ward 123 of Chennai Corporation.
“I feel extremely happy to work during the pandemic,” says Padmapriya, even as she mobilizes a fever camp in the neighbourhood.
Following lockdown, Padmapriya who was involved in monitoring garbage segregation and composting was put on COVID-19 duty. Now, her work is to go around R.A.Puram area to survey and identify residents with virus symptoms.
Says Padmapriya, “Initially, I was very scared to do this work. But in time, I gathered confidence and got accustomed to it.”
In fact, I’m visiting containment zones and virus-positive patients now, says Padmapriya proudly.
Nowadays, as virus-positive patients are home-quarantined, we are asked to visit them daily and check on their health too, she says.
In doing so, Padmapriya has also become friends with the virus-positive persons she visits. She says, “On my daily visit to a virus-positive person’s house, besides checking their fever and cough, I also talk to the patients and cheer them up. This makes them happy and we all have become friends now.”
Most of her patients, she says are seniors. “So the little words of care make them happy. And their happiness keeps me going, ” she adds.
If the patients have any problem, Padmapriya says she immediately informs it to the Corporation’s doctor. And they follow up with the patient.
Padmapriya admits that work gets tedious sometimes. “They call us at any time of the day to arrange fever camps or carry out a survey. And we have to report to duty immediately.”
However, she does not find any of this challenging as ‘I love doing social service’
The young civic worker is a resident of Sathya Nagar, a TNSCB colony off Greenways Road MRTS station in Mylapore.”I have an elderly mother and a 3-year-old son besides my brother and husband at home.”
Padmapriya says she is not scared of getting infected by the virus. But she does have her apprehensions of passing the infection to her family in case she turns virus-positive. ” So I take all precautions to ensure that my family does not get infected. I wear masks and gloves while at work. And as soon as I reach home, I take a bath and then only meet my family. I also maintain distance from my family members at home.”
“However, the most difficult part of all this has been to keep a distance from my 3-year-old son. He is very attached to me. But I’m unable to play with him as I used to and that is my only worry.”
- Picture courtesy: www.123RF.com
