Filipino doctors shield their families with ‘quarantent,’ safe spaces

Jan Claire Dorado, a doctor assigned to the COVID-19 Emergency Room of East Avenue Medical Center, bonds with her mother and their cat from behind the small plastic window on her makeshift isolation room at home in Quezon City, June 26, 2020. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

After taking a job in a hospital's COVID-19 emergency room, Dr. Jan Claire Dorado planned to move out of the family home to protect relatives from the risk of infection.

But Dorado's parents insisted the 30-year-old keep living at home, so her father constructed a makeshift isolation area in a storage room there.

Now, when she returns from work at one of the country's main hospitals treating coronavirus patients, her dinner is placed outside the room's door on a stool.

"The hardest part is being away from them. I miss them a lot," said Dorado, who greets family members from behind a plastic window on a wall covered in foil.

Her parents are considered high-risk for COVID-19 because of preexisting conditions, and Dorado said she once painfully refused her mother's request for a hug.

As of Sunday, 3,360 health workers in the country have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of this number, 34 have died.

Safekeeping loved ones is also a high priority for pediatrician Mica Bastillo, even as she confronts COVID-19 head on.

Mica Bastillo, a pediatrician assigned to treat COVID-19 patients, eats dinner at a makeshift tent in their yard in Marikina City, May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

The 38-year-old took on a new role at a children's hospital in another part of Manila after it became a COVID-19 referral facility in April.

"My family thought about asking me to resign, but anywhere I go I would still have to face COVID," she said.

With her father and sister battling medical conditions, the family built a makeshift tent next to their home for Bastillo, which they dubbed a "quarantent".

Made out of plastic sheets to keep out the rain, it allows Bastillo to be with her family at a safe distance.

"My mother put the curtains and the table cloth to make it look like home... And my brother added the plastic sheet. It was a real family effort," said Bastillo, who still joins her family for nightly prayers seated beside the front door wearing a mask. — Reuters