‘I am tired of being one of many masked faces’: the faces on the front line

“I am awaiting the day I can wear lipstick again and be maskless so my patients can put a face to the doctor that has been looking after them. I am tired of being one of many masked faces.”

So says Dr Taheera Hassim, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Life Sunninghill in Johannesburg.

She is one of countless health workers who have been on the front lines of Covid-19 since the first case was declared on March 5 2020.

“I saw my first extremely ill Covid patient in April 2020 and then I realised that this was not to be taken lightly,” Hassim said. 

The second and third waves were the busiest, as the wards filled up with extremely ill Covid-19 patients, she added. 

There was fear among patients that they would leave as corpses.

“The hospital had an eerie feeling. The buzzing coffee shop was deserted. Colleagues were all masked up and running off to minimise any social contact.”

The lockdown period was a stressful time for new parents, as they were not allowed to have their partners in the labour ward when they delivered their babies.

“When I would deliver a baby, there was no birthing partner or family allowed. It was odd, as bringing in new life is always joyous and I was used to a celebratory theme at a birth. This perturbed me the most. It became a sad, isolated time.” 

Many doctors went through a range of emotions during the height of the pandemic.

“We formed lots of WhatsApp groups. We linked up with international groups. The healthcare workers worked together. Even doctors in hospitals, we were in similar groups,” said Johannesburg-based doctor Yakub Essack, who was part of a group of doctors who worked with Gift of the Givers to assist in hospitals around the country when Covid-19 was at its peak. 

“There was an absolute feeling of doom and gloom. We knew our public hospitals were not ready to cope.”

When Gift of the Givers realised some people isolating at home did not have facilities to test their oxygen levels, it donated oxygen concentrators. 

“We had to get the larger community involved,” Essack said.

While the rate of Covid-19 has dropped, the mental strain on healthcare workers has continued because they have lost many colleagues.

“Things are much better now. There is calm now. Many people have been vaccinated. We feel we are in a space to control and fewer people are sick,” he said.

Dr Mani Thandrayen, from Eshowe hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, was part of a group of doctors from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) who assisted at community and hospital levels during the pandemic.

“What made it difficult was inter-hospital transfers and patients who had to be put on ventilators. Staff had to equip themselves quickly on how to manage patients on these machines.

“Patients were difficult to manage. They could deteriorate from one moment to another,” said Thandrayen. 

The second wave was more of a challenge than the first, he said.

During December 2020, Thandrayen said, many patients arrived late for treatment because they were celebrating Christmas and did not realise the extent of the disease.

“They were already in distress. Putting them on machines did not work because they were in their final stages. This did take a toll on the staff. They were overwhelmed,” he said.

One of those involved in data analysis on Covid-19 trends is Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior researcher Ridhwaan Suliman, who began tracking the virus when it hit SA shores.

He has now become SA’s “go-to” for a clear daily analysis of Covid-19 statistics.

“These two years have been burdensome on me, but the feedback I receive online or even from strangers has been mostly positive and has motivated me to continue tracking, analysing and sharing data. And during the last wave, many of my friends abroad and others overseas sent me messages of appreciation as the world watched and tried to understand the implications of Omicron.

“From a stranger telling me they base their movements and activities on my risk analysis to a friend overseas telling me they planned their New Year’s travels around the Omicron data I was sharing ... the reach has been unexpected, but fulfilling,” Suliman said.

He believes there is still much to be done when it comes to public health data, communication and awareness, and public policy.

“One thing that remained clear to me through this period is that we need to keep messages and communication clear and understandable, particularly during a crisis that affects all of our lives in one way or another. Data is everywhere, in different forms, and it’s more important than ever to understand what it all means. Data is crucial to gain public trust and has become a necessity in decision-making and public policy,” he said.

SA was now at a point where four waves had passed and all Covid indicators were low, though still at a higher baseline than one would like, said Suliman, adding that he hoped this was a “turning point in the pandemic”.