Levanova Lends a Hand for Fight Against COVID-19
5/26/2020 4:14:00 PM | Volleyball
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – For at least the first two months of 2020, things were all going according to plan for Mariia Levanova '19. The former Syracuse and Coastal Carolina volleyball player was in the middle of her first professional season - playing for Absheron in the Azerbaijan Women's Volleyball Super League - when the sports world was shut down due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Levanova returned to her home city of St. Petersburg, Russia, and quickly made her way to the front lines to fight the disease.
Mariia's mother, Ekaterina Serebriakova, is a physical therapist in St. Petersburg, who practices at a clinic that was converted into an observatory for Russian citizens who needed to be put in quarantine after coming from abroad. After returning from Azerbaijan and self-isolating for 14 days, Levanova, with no idea when volleyball would return, decided to devote her time to combatting the virus.
"I've gone to that clinic a lot of times to get treatment so I've gotten to know the doctors and nurses who work there," Levanova said. "When I came home they asked my mom if I was interested in helping the community to fight the pandemic, so I said yes."
Currently, the clinic hosts about 140 Russian citizens from countries including: the United States, India, Israel, Indonesia, Armenia, Italy, and Vietnam, amongst others. Levanova's duties around the facility include taking patients' temperatures twice a day and ensuring that patients showing symptoms are isolated to the infection center of the hospital. Patients can go home after 14 days of not showing any symptoms with a normal temperature.
The help has come at a cost, as Levanova and her mother have had to live in the building next to the hospital with the rest of the doctors and nurses for the duration of the pandemic.
"We work 12-of-24 hour shifts depending on how many people we expect during a day. Our families and friends are able to bring us food and some other stuff but we only communicate with them through the fence."
Levanova, a 2019 Syracuse University graduate with a food studies degree, is not phased by the long hours and uncertainty involved with this crisis, but is happy to contribute in any way that she is able.
"I'm not a doctor so I don't save people's lives, but I help these doctors do little things to hopefully make their hard work a bit easier. I don't have anything to do until next season, which hopefully starts in August, so instead of being lazy at home I wanted to invest my energy and effort into something helpful."
Levanova hopes to help at the clinic until the end of May.
For continued coverage of Syracuse volleyball, follow us on Twitter (@CuseVB), Instagram (cusevb) and like us on Facebook (Syracuse Volleyball).
Mariia's mother, Ekaterina Serebriakova, is a physical therapist in St. Petersburg, who practices at a clinic that was converted into an observatory for Russian citizens who needed to be put in quarantine after coming from abroad. After returning from Azerbaijan and self-isolating for 14 days, Levanova, with no idea when volleyball would return, decided to devote her time to combatting the virus.
"I've gone to that clinic a lot of times to get treatment so I've gotten to know the doctors and nurses who work there," Levanova said. "When I came home they asked my mom if I was interested in helping the community to fight the pandemic, so I said yes."
Currently, the clinic hosts about 140 Russian citizens from countries including: the United States, India, Israel, Indonesia, Armenia, Italy, and Vietnam, amongst others. Levanova's duties around the facility include taking patients' temperatures twice a day and ensuring that patients showing symptoms are isolated to the infection center of the hospital. Patients can go home after 14 days of not showing any symptoms with a normal temperature.
The help has come at a cost, as Levanova and her mother have had to live in the building next to the hospital with the rest of the doctors and nurses for the duration of the pandemic.
"We work 12-of-24 hour shifts depending on how many people we expect during a day. Our families and friends are able to bring us food and some other stuff but we only communicate with them through the fence."
Levanova, a 2019 Syracuse University graduate with a food studies degree, is not phased by the long hours and uncertainty involved with this crisis, but is happy to contribute in any way that she is able.
"I'm not a doctor so I don't save people's lives, but I help these doctors do little things to hopefully make their hard work a bit easier. I don't have anything to do until next season, which hopefully starts in August, so instead of being lazy at home I wanted to invest my energy and effort into something helpful."
Levanova hopes to help at the clinic until the end of May.
For continued coverage of Syracuse volleyball, follow us on Twitter (@CuseVB), Instagram (cusevb) and like us on Facebook (Syracuse Volleyball).
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