(TNS) - In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, EMS workers face unique challenges among healthcare workers.
They’re walking into the “great unknown.”

“We’re going into people’s homes. The hospital is a really tough environment but they have to keep cleanliness to a certain standard,” said Administrative Director of EMS at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) Dominick Battinelli.

That hospital standard of cleanliness doesn’t exist in a house -- especially in a home where a patient who is potentially positive for COVID-19 has been cooped up for days.