“As people and governments around the world deal with the international COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we’ve been asking our Fellows for their thoughts and feelings on how this global is affecting them. If you have any questions for Eran or our other speakers - whose stories we’ll publish in the coming days and weeks - drop us an email at [email protected]. - Laurence @ SNS”

I'm writing this post in the middle of a shift as an ambulance driver collecting corona samples.

I feel a bit like a Wolt [Israeli food delivery service app] driver, just upside down.

We are driving across Tel Aviv from address to address, to collect samples from people in solitary isolation.

Collecting samples from homes is for those who can't reach the "test and go" (which is too similar to "Drive Thru", but that doesn't matter).

At every stop the team changes protective equipment from head to toe, collects the details on the phone and then takes the sample from the front door. A quarter of an hour of preparation for a minute of taking a sample.

Within all the fiascos we are witnessing from the Government and the Ministry of Health, from the uncertainty and anxiety of not telling citizens anything, to the fact that the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Knesset are busy with other things than dealing with 20 percent unemployment, Magen David Adom, for all the problems and flaws there are In the organisation - functions in a way that invokes feelings of inspiration.

Volunteers and workers are getting on with it - rationing equipment responsibly, and doing especially long shifts. There is a good atmosphere, there is regular updates & information via WhatsApp groups, and everything is managed, from equipment to people, in a professional way.

All in all, those in self-isolation are very polite; there are some young people who returned from overseas or were at the wrong Purim party, and everyone is social distancing, whether alone or with more people.

Do me a favor: follow the guidelines: don’t shake hands, keep physical distance but not social distance, and for goodness sake - remember to call your grandma.

May we all be alright.

You can find Eran online here 

Translated by James Sunderland