Photographer Go Nakamura has visited the intensive care unit for covid-19 patients in Houston around 20 times, but never gets used to what meets him.
– Taking pictures that are too graphic to share, meeting patients who are gone when you return the following week – it is not possible to get used to it, Nakamura says to USA Today.
This weekend, the Americans celebrated an unusual Thanksgiving marked by the corona pandemic, and Nakamura captured the moment that is now going around the world on his camera.
As the numbers of covid-19 patients admitted reach new heights, and some hospitals are approaching the breaking point, he was allowed to be with the chief of staff at the hospital in Houston, Joseph Varon, on duty.
The image in which Varon, wrapped in full infection control equipment, embraces what the photographer describes as a “clearly lonely and vulnerable” patient, has received much attention in the United States in recent days.
According to Nakamura, the chief of staff has a unique ability to get close to the patients. He should be known for coming up with encouraging words, but a hug is seldom lasting, he says.
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Worked every day since the pandemic escalated
The number of covid-19 patients treated in hospitals in the United States reached 90,000 on Friday. Over the past month, the number of inpatients has doubled – and is now at its highest so far during the pandemic, according to Reuters.
Infection rates have been rising throughout the United States in recent weeks. On Monday morning, 13.7 million were registered cases of infection. More than 273,000 people have lost their lives so far in the pandemic.
Before the weekend, Joseph Varon stated to CNN that he feared a new influx of sick patients after the holidays.
“My main concern for the next six to twelve weeks is that if we do not do things right now, America will enter the darkest time in modern American history,” he said.
– My hospital is full. I just opened two new wings so we have room in the coming days, because I know people are going to get sick after Thanksgiving.
Varon told the channel that Friday was his 251st working day in a row, due to the ongoing pandemic. Neither he nor the patient has so far commented on the photos taken this weekend.
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