AFP :
After gruelling shifts treating coronavirus patients, Hong Kong doctor Alfred Wong often finds himself alone in a hotel room eating takeaway, battling the pain of being separated from his pregnant wife.
The 38-year-old volunteered to join staff on isolation wards-dubbed “the dirty team”-to avoid the risk of being called up later and missing his daughter’s birth in two months’ time.
While he is on the team, he has decided to keep contact with loved ones down to a minimum.
“All I can do now is to try my best to protect myself and stay away from everyone-my family and my friends,” he told AFP.
Since joining the team in early February, Wong has stayed at a hotel within walking distance of his hospital and shaved his hair into crew-cut, a way to reduce gaps in protective clothing.
Sometimes he picks up homemade box meals that his wife leaves on the doorstep of their home.
“The best gift I can give is perhaps a living husband,” Wong joked wryly, rubbing hands that had become itchy from being washed so regularly.
Wong and his wife are hoping to find a quiet restaurant and sit at different tables within eyesight of one another as their Valentines’ meal.
Hundreds of doctors and nurses like Wong are going through similar family
separations as they battle a virus that has killed nearly 1,400 people in mainland China.
In Hong Kong, 53 people have so far been diagnosed, one of whom died.
While the numbers are low, the outbreak has still put a huge strain on the over-crowded hospitals in a densely packed city of seven million.
Around 60 percent of isolation wards in public hospitals are occupied with confirmed or suspected cases.
Wong and 14 fellow doctors currently have two confirmed cases on their ward but they are also monitoring 40 suspected cases. All must be treated as if they are carriers.
“We have to visit each patient twice a day and have three clinical meetings among our team to discuss the patients’ progress because this is a new virus,” he said.
After gruelling shifts treating coronavirus patients, Hong Kong doctor Alfred Wong often finds himself alone in a hotel room eating takeaway, battling the pain of being separated from his pregnant wife.
The 38-year-old volunteered to join staff on isolation wards-dubbed “the dirty team”-to avoid the risk of being called up later and missing his daughter’s birth in two months’ time.
While he is on the team, he has decided to keep contact with loved ones down to a minimum.
“All I can do now is to try my best to protect myself and stay away from everyone-my family and my friends,” he told AFP.
Since joining the team in early February, Wong has stayed at a hotel within walking distance of his hospital and shaved his hair into crew-cut, a way to reduce gaps in protective clothing.
Sometimes he picks up homemade box meals that his wife leaves on the doorstep of their home.
“The best gift I can give is perhaps a living husband,” Wong joked wryly, rubbing hands that had become itchy from being washed so regularly.
Wong and his wife are hoping to find a quiet restaurant and sit at different tables within eyesight of one another as their Valentines’ meal.
Hundreds of doctors and nurses like Wong are going through similar family
separations as they battle a virus that has killed nearly 1,400 people in mainland China.
In Hong Kong, 53 people have so far been diagnosed, one of whom died.
While the numbers are low, the outbreak has still put a huge strain on the over-crowded hospitals in a densely packed city of seven million.
Around 60 percent of isolation wards in public hospitals are occupied with confirmed or suspected cases.
Wong and 14 fellow doctors currently have two confirmed cases on their ward but they are also monitoring 40 suspected cases. All must be treated as if they are carriers.
“We have to visit each patient twice a day and have three clinical meetings among our team to discuss the patients’ progress because this is a new virus,” he said.
