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Dubai: Much water has flown under the bridge since the UAE recorded the first COVID-19 positive case of a Chinese grandmother and her family on holiday here on January 29 last year.
A year down the line, as many UAE residents, who were among the earliest cases locally, look back, they say the learning curve was sharp. Speaking to
Gulf News, they shared their experience in the hope that the lessons they learnt would hold others in good stead too.
‘I suffered from COVID-19 twice’
Jana Uchrinova
Jana Uchrinova, 30, from Slovakia, caught COVID-19 not once, but twice to her dismay. Working with a popular jewellery retailer, Uchrinova, told
Dubai: The COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener for all, teaching us lessons that will remain with us always. For some, the gains far outweighed the losses as they chose not to agonise over the past but to share what they had with others.
We spoke to a few UAE residents who were able to find purpose and gain from the pandemic. While one cooked food for the needy, another bonded closer to the family, while yet another helped the community.
Here’s what they said.
Pakistani expatriate Basid Siddique, owner of the Mumtaz Darbar restaurant in Muhaisnah
Basid Siddique was making sales worth Dh8,000 a day at the restaurant serving authentic Pakistani, Indian and Chinese food. Then the pandemic struck and Siddique’s sales plummeted. “My loss is unimaginable,” he said. “Suddenly, I was sitting on a pile of raw material like rice, pulses, lentils, but there was no purpose to cook as there were no customers coming to eat. A thought struck me then to feed the needy those affected
Dubai: A Dubai-based health care group is ending 2020 on a strong note with its month-long ‘Walk To Win’ Challenge.
Over 18,890 employees working at 380 establishments under Aster DM Healthcare, operating in seven countries, including the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and India, were invited to take part in the fitness initiative aimed at helping medical frontliners cope with the demands of the pandemic while living a healthy lifestyle. And a sizeable lot joined in.
Alisha Moopen, deputy managing director of Aster DM Healthcare, told Gulf News: “One thing the pandemic has reinforced is the importance of one’s own health. Only by prioritising our own health, can we ensure the health and well-being of our family, colleagues, patients and customers.”