Every night, since the COVID-19 pandemic brought several European countries to a standstill, people confined to their homes have taken to their windows and balconies to cheer and applaud the health workers battling against the virus.
Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are on the frontlines of the fight against a pandemic that has already claimed more than 64,000 lives (at the time of publication) worldwide. And they pay a heavy price. In Italy, which so far has the biggest death toll from coronavirus, close to 90 health workers have died since the beginning of the outbreak (at the time of publication), while across the world, tens of thousands more have been infected and forced into self-isolation, putting many healthcare systems under incredible strain.
But there are many other categories of workers whose contribution to the global fight against the virus is essential. Workers who simply cannot perform their job with a laptop from their living room and now carry out their daily work with the added anxiety of deadly contamination.
Truck drivers worldwide have posted pictures of themselves on social media with the caption: “I can’t stay home, I’m a truck driver.” In Italy, a supermarket clerk died of the virus; in South Africa, journalists have tested positive for COVID-19; gig economy workers in the US, with no safety net to fall back on, continue to drive passengers and deliver food and packages, even though just one interaction with a coronavirus carrier could be fatal. And in Belgium, street cleaners like Ahmet Sener perform their work with no protective equipment other than a winter scarf.