The doctors and nurses at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, who are usually the ones applauded, decided to turn around and clap for the cleaners who help keep the hospital sanitary and functioning.
A video from the hospital taken on March 27, 2020, shows a group of doctors and nurses in scrubs and PPE clapping and cheering as the cleaning staff arrive in a hospital corridor. The hospital, which shared the video on Twitter, wrote that it wanted to give a “well deserved round of applause” to all the non-medical staff.
The hospital Twitter caption also said, “Today we want to thank the cleaning, security, kitchen, infrastructures staff, that is, all non-healthcare professionals who continue to perform their tasks in exceptional circumstances due to #COVID19.”
The #ClapBecauseWeCare campaign focused on the doctors and nurses actively caring for virus patients. Sant Joan de Déu’s wanted to highlight the essential contribution of all the support staff who make such care possible.
The Health Department in Catalonia also shared the post, and it went massively viral, garnering over 15 million views.
The government agency shared, “The cleaning, security, kitchen, administration, and maintenance staff ... have a discreet but very relevant role.” The small gesture of appreciation soon spread around the world.
The talk show “The View” featured the Sant Joan de Déu video on its livestream, in which co-host Whoopi Goldberg shares, “People around the world have been thanking doctors and nurses for their tireless service.” And she called the video “a reminder for us not to forget who else is on these front lines with us of this crazy crisis.”
Staff members of the Gregorio Maranon Hospital applaud to pay tribute to cleaning workers in Madrid on April 1, 2020. OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images
As the battle with the virus continues, the United States, too, is taking notice of the cleaners behind the scenes. Yahoo! News correspondent Hunter Walker posted a picture of his mother-in-law Gina Rejas, an immigrant from Peru, who works as a hospital cleaner in New York, along with a caption that reads, “This is my chance to thank New York for making my family’s dreams come true.” The Twitter post went massively viral.
Walker’s mother told the news outlet, “The cleaning department is in the frontline making sure that there aren’t infections, that there isn’t contagion. I want to tell people that we make it so when you arrive at the hospital you find a place that’s disinfected. I want to tell people that we will always greet you with a smile.”
