The staff of the Ambulance service has been on the first line since the beginning of the pandemic working non-stop, often against their own families or their own physical exhaustion.
The head of the Service Ria Konstantinou is the driving force. She never sits, is always in the field giving directions and taking care of patients.
Ria Konstantinou is speaking to Phileleftheros about the difficulties of the first days, the fatigue but also the readiness of the service at any time.
Referring to the beginning of the pandemic, she said that seeing what was happening in other countries, the service started training its crews before even the first confirmed cases appeared in Cyprus.
Despite that, during the first year, the long hours exhausted the members even though they have been doing their best.
Members of the Ambulance Service are also manning the line 1420, which has to do with emergencies regarding COVID-19. As, she said, people thought this was a line to get information about COVID and kept calling since they were confused and concerned. The call center would receive thousands of calls at every minute.
As Ria Konstantinou says, the worst part was the beginning of the pandemic when people kept calling, kept expecting support and the staff did not have time to rest or go home.
Even now emergencies have not stopped and the crews continue non-stop since March 2020.
Finally, she is sending a message to all to be patient since vaccinations have begun and soon there will be an end to this crisis.
