Colonel Mohammed Al Khoury, Deputy of the Capital Police Department, recovered from COVID-19 disease and resumed his work at the frontline in the fight against the pandemic crisis in Abu Dhabi. The Frontline Heroes Office shared a video, narrating the story of the Abu Dhabi Police officer as he beat COVID-19 disease and served the nation at the frontline.

In the video, he stated that he had confidence on the government for taking care of him and his family at a time when he was battling the disease.

"A simple 'Don’t worry' from His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan - Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces - gave me the confidence that I was in good hands," he said in the video.

In February, Colonel Al Khoury was handed over the task to assist in management of the COVID-19 crisis by Major-General Maktoum Ali Al Sharifi, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Police.

In his illustrious career, Colonel Al Khoury has received 23 medals as he served around five years in the police academy after graduation. But, the mammoth task of managing the pandemic crisis was something outside the area of his ordinary police work. He was required to work with the fast-paced response of the Abu Dhabi government in order to ensure the health and safety of the public.

In the video, Colonel Al Khoury explained his journey through the crisis management: "When I arrived at the police headquarters, it was 8 am. I was one of the five persons whom General Maktoum had called in. He instructed us to create a task force to work on the mission and it was all so sudden for us. I left that night at midnight and from February till August, I worked from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week.”

Since February, the team grew exponentially and they worked with wider police force, traffic department, Abu Dhabi Healthcare Company (SEHA), municipalities, hospitality operators, retailers, and other government agencies with the aim of combatting the disease.

One of the major tasks was to turn hotels into quarantine centres. Colonel Al Khoury explained that they were tasked to bring locals safely back to the country from foreign countries and ensure that they are kept in proper quarantine centres. Every individual had their roles in the nationwide efforts aimed at fighting the virus, he added.

Staying away from family after testing positive for COVID-19

In the video, Colonel Al Khoury shared about his first-hand experiences in the quarantine facilities after testing positive for COVID-19 in May 2020.

“It was a good learning experience. I was in a quarantine centre for 14 days. Being there helped me in understanding how the people were working and managing all services necessary to keep the patients safe. I was delighted to receive calls from senior government officials and my family members during the period," he stated.

However, contracting COVID-19 was not a major challenge for Colonel Al Khoury - Instead, it was not being able to properly meet his five children and family for a long period at the start of the pandemic. He revealed that he was not able to see his family in the first two months of the fight against the pandemic.

"I would work and get home late and see my wife for five minutes. Then, I had to go to sleep," he said.

Later in video, Colonel Al Khoury hailed the collective response of Abu Dhabi residents in line with the efforts of the authorities that helped in mitigating the impact of the disease. He stated that most of the people in Abu Dhabi understood their responsibility in protecting the safety of their lives, their children and their colleagues amid the pandemic crisis.

“Everyone had a responsibility. For example, Food deliveries never stopped; they were delivering food across various parts of the emirate all the time. Passes were being provided to people working in health, delivery, shipping. Despite this, tough decisions were also made when we had to close down offices, shops and malls to protect the health and safety of the people from the COVID-19 virus.

Colonel Al Khoury lauded the efforts made by the Frontline Heroes Office in recognising, celebrating and supporting those frontline workers who sacrificed their lives for other people and served the nation amid the critical circumstances.

"We are encouraging people to be heroes. Therefore, it is important to lead by example and show everybody in our service that it is crucial they play their part,” he added.