Fresh Saudi graduate from China joins COVID-19 facility as volunteer

Dubai: A fresh Saudi graduate doctor, who recently returned home from China where he studied medicine, joined a quarantine facility in Medina as a volunteer, the Arabic daily newspaper Okaz reported.

His duty as an intern doctor in the morning shift in a hospital does not prevent Dr. Muaad Mohammed Bashir from working voluntarily in the quarantine facility in the evening.

Dr. Bashir said: “I studied medicine on a scholarship programme for six years. I returned to the kingdom recently after graduating.”

“At the start of the outbreak of coronavirus in China, I stayed there for around three months. However, due to my family’s growing concerns over my health, I returned to the kingdom after the Saudi embassy made great efforts to bring me back from China.

“Now, I am working as an intern in a hospital in the morning shift, and as a volunteer in the quarantine facility in Medina in the evening,” he added.

His duties at the quarantine facility include conducting examinations and all the necessary medical check-ups on people. In case of any suspicion, swabs are taken from the suspected people and then if tested positive, they are transferred to a hospital.

Dr. Bashir said working as a volunteer in the health sector is pleasing and satisfying, because serving patients is a humanitarian duty. “I am happy to work voluntarily to give back to my society and nation,” he said.