A Kiwi paramedic on the frontline of the Covid-19 fight in New York is refusing to come home, even as the situation continues to deteriorate with the virus claiming 799 people lives in the past 24 hours.
"I had a woman who asked me please to not let her family member go to one of the refrigerated trucks," West Auckland woman Chez Valenta, who has been caring for people in New York for the past 16 years, said.
"You're now encountering someone's mother saying, 'That's my only son, you have to try again.' You have no answers for these people."
Now, Ms Valenta's fellow carers are dying.
“I was advised yesterday of a friend in the emergency room that I frequent that passed away, doctors, nurses that I know,” she told 1 NEWS.
“It’s becoming more and more commonplace to hear the news that someone that you, know that you are friends with, that has ultimately has succumbed to this illness.”
She said medical staff there have seen "about a 400 per cent surge" in people dying from the illness at home.
"As far as I’m aware, those numbers are not being counted in the New York state totals,” Ms Valenta explained.
The death toll is continuing to grow, with many buildings being turned into field hospitals, and trucks becoming makeshift morgues.
“It’s very scary to see that this picks one person and then doesn’t pick another and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it and understanding that inherently, maybe one day soon, it’s going to pick me.”
Chez Valenta says medical personnel have already started resorting to rubbish bags as protective clothing with supplies running out.
Despite the risks, however, Ms Valenta is determined not to return home.
“How do you reconcile running out on one family to go home to another one? And that’s something that I can’t do," she said.
“My love of people is stronger than my fear of this virus.”
Members of the public are returning the love, with applause ringing out across New York City every night at 7pm for the sacrifice of Ms Valenta and her colleagues.
“I don’t think I’ve eaten a meal that I cooked or that I bought inside of two weeks because of the community support.”
SHARE ME