Hospital staff lift Covid-19 patients’ spirits with dance in Bengaluru

As Bengaluru bears the brunt of a rapid surge in coronavirus cases, the on-duty staff at one of the city’s hospitals attempted to pierce the gloom with a short dance routine to cheer patients up in the Covid-19 ward.

Hospital staff in protective gear can be seen dancing to popular Kannada songs to lift the patients’ morale in a video posted by the Bangalore Mirror, swinging their arms around and encouraging patients to join in. Many of the patients with oxygen masks on their mouths also raise their hands and partake in the light-hearted routine.

Read more: Bengaluru to begin Covid-19 vaccination for 18-44 years age group from May 10

Twitter reacted warmly to the little performance, lauding the efforts of the hospital staff to alleviate the fear and worry caused by the Covid-19 crisis. One user commended the hospital staff and called them the “real heroes”.

Another tweet said that a little positivity goes a long way in curing the ailment:

Even though Bengaluru logged logging more than 21,500 cases on Saturday and citizens are scrambling for hospital beds as the city is currently the worst hit by the ongoing second coronavirus wave, doctors and health experts have said that staying positive in these times could be crucial to recovery.

“The first thing we should do is to keep fear and anxiety away,” Apollo Hospitals' chief executive officer said in a Facebook live session last month while advising people to be on guard and assume any symptoms could indicate a Covid-19 infection.

Moments of relaxation or celebration are also necessary to keep hospital staff and frontline workers swamped with a barrage of daily cases to remain in good spirits, according to health experts. Understaffed nurses and hospital staff have been pulling long shifts and have come under severe stress as hospitals are packed with cases.

Healthcare workers around the world have faced additional, and often avoidable, sources of stress and anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to increased burnout, according to the medical journal Lancet. The journal has called for people and governments to acknowledge the psychological distress related to caring for patients with Covid-19 and to destigmatise work-related mental health issues and properly tend to them.