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.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. In Italy, which so far has the biggest death toll from coronavirus, close to 90 health workers have died<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Truck drivers worldwide have posted pictures of themselves on social media with the caption: \u201cI can\u2019t stay home, I\u2019m a truck driver.\u201d In Italy, a supermarket clerk died of the virus; in South Africa, journalists have tested positive for COVID-19<\/a>; 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.<\/p>\n