Diary entry on corona virus in 80 to 100 words
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After the call confirming my positive test, everything changed. Our doctor briefed us to make a contact list, and told us that the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NICD) would call us the next day and that they would also make contact with the people on the list.
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The dreaded phone call
Everyone I had contact with I had to call and explain: “Hi (name). My test result for Corona has unfortunately come back positive. This means you will need to go into self-quarantine for 14 days.
”I was not in self-quarantine for a few hours on the day I returned from my overseas trip. The result was that more than 20 people and their families from my office needed to self-quarantine. The whole school closed down. The waiter at the restaurant we went for an early dinner had to go into self-quarantine. I had to call parents of the children whom I had picked up from school that day. They also run their own businesses, and are now living in self-quarantine.
Calm and professional
The Western Cape Health department called the next day, and were amazing. The lead doctors spoke to me calmly and explained the protocol. I was to stay isolated within my house (stay in a separate room and have the family bring me food) and maintain strict cleaning protocols with contaminated items. The doctor kept talking about how to manage “the disease” – it sounded strange to be talking about a disease when I didn’t feel sick.
What I realised soon after was that many still did not understand the extent of self-quarantine, never mind self-isolation. In fact, until the Western Cape Health department called the next day, neither did we really.
Fight or flight
As news of my positive status started to spread, I realised there were two ways in which people respond under threat: Fight, or flight. Some texted me words of strength and resilience, positivity and encouragement: the fighters. Others texted me about how and where to get tested, and how they could travel back to a place of safety: the flighters.
Had I not tested positive, I would never have stayed away from work. We would have gone for family dinner on Wednesday night, with my 92-year-old granny, and aunts and uncles. While healthy people are mildly affected, I am still a carrier and I could really dangerously affect the vulnerable in my community if I don’t stay in isolation.
My GP's reply
My GP shared the following information with me: GPs and hospitals are flooded by calls and visits by people whom we refer to as the "well-worried". We get it, you're anxious. The NICD – with some of our country's brightest medical minds – and our public health authority have a CASE definition, which we as doctors and labs have to follow. You may be rich or feel entitled to a test; you may even consider lying about your symptoms; you may feel extremely anxious. More likely you're well-meaning and are concerned about all your loved ones, your clients, your elderly neighbours.
As it currently stands, we have to follow the NICD suspected case definition. For the general population (not health care workers), that means:
You must have some symptoms of a flu-like illness. (Only a blocked nose does not count.) But this would be in conjunction with having:
Travelled abroad or you must have been in close contact with a known positive case. (In doctor speak: you have to have clinical and epidemiological criteria to be tested for Covid-19.)
There are a number of reasons why we can't test everyone who:
Has travelled abroad, or
Has been in close contact with a positive coronavirus case.
We don't have enough test kits for all those people. If you are tested while you have no symptoms (regardless of whether you smooched your boyfriend who has tested positive or if you just arrived back from Milan), you are more than likely to test negative. However, this does not mean that you will stay negative; you could develop symptoms a few days later.
Taking it day by day
After a full week in isolation, my children and husband are still feeling strong, and are showing no obvious symptoms. We check our temperature a few times a day, to ensure they don’t go over 37.5 degrees Celsius. We decided that self-isolation within the house (me in a separate room at all times) was not an option with our young children, and have instead set up hygiene protocols to keep the house as clean as possible to try minimise the chances of infection.
Health care workers and my GP continue to monitor my symptoms and my family's health daily, and are checking in with my contact list daily too. The directive changes daily, and the health care professionals on the ground are doing their best to manage us, their patients, within the new frameworks.
At first, self-isolation was 14 days, with two successful negative tests needed to exit self-isolation. The new directive is no further testing for positive patients, but in the case of a family, 21 days self-isolation if one family member tested positive.
Kim Whitaker