Healthcare workers wear badges with their faces on so patients can see beyond their masks

According to statistics from John Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center, there have been 1,446,242 confirmed cases of coronavirus at the time of writing.

There have been 83,424 total deaths and 308,146 total recoveries.

Watch this father-of-two be given a guard of honour as he leaves hospital:

Naturally, as the number of cases continue to rise, more and more people are being admitted to hospital for treatment for COVID-19. Of course, that can be a highly distressing and worrying time, but healthcare workers are coming up with a heartwarming and ingenious method to reassure hospital patients.

Due to the necessary PPE healthcare workers wear while treating patients with COVID-19, their faces are mostly obscured. That's where this new idea comes in: healthcare workers putting pictures of themselves on their PPE, so patients can see who they are being treated by.

One Twitter user shared an image, which subsequently went viral, of doctors doing exactly that, writing: "These doctors have put their pictures on their PPE so that their patients can see who is looking after them, this is such a nice idea".

"Yesterday I felt bad for my patients in ER when I would come in the room with my face covered in PPE. A reassuring smile makes a big difference to a scared patient. So today I made a giant laminated badge for my PPE. So my patients can see a reassuring and comforting smile"

And the idea seems to be taking hold. Another person took to Instagram to share a picture with fellow healthcare workers wearing the laminated badges. They wrote:

"Saw this idea on IG and thought it was a beautiful way to bring ease to our patients during this stressful time. Thank you to all the healthcare workers out there for battling on the frontlines. To all those who are staying home, huge shout out to you! I know that is also not easy."

We are urging all of our readers to adhere to the advice from their respective governments and medical bodies, and practice social distancing and self-isolation where required. Together, we will beat this...