The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A woman working in healthcare, who tested positive for COVID-19, is able to recall the exact moment she was infected with the disease.

The healthcare worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, had taken time off work and was feeling fine when she was called in to be tested for the virus.

“When I came into contact with the person, neither me nor the person was aware that they had COVID, I would say. The person didn’t have any symptoms, neither did I,” she said.

“I probably didn’t begin having symptoms until like about a week, two weeks later and I didn’t think anything of it because I was like ‘oh you just overthinking it. You did all the necessary precautions to protect yourself. You taken your vitamins. You doing all this different stuff. So it’s near impossible for you to have COVID’.”

However, she added: “After the person found out that they were positive, they did contact tracing and when they did contact tracing I was on the list and that’s how I ended up being tested.”

She suffered from joint pain, low grade fever, headache, and loss of taste and smell. Although she saw the disease as the common flu, she said it was a mental toll for her as it affected her family after she got tested.

“It affected my household, especially with the contact tracing. Like my whole family had to be tested. My whole family was actually pulled off their job. The ministry literally called their jobs and they were pulled off their jobs because of me being testing positive.”

She was quarantined in the three-bedroom home where one of her family members moved to make space for her until her quarantine time ended. Her entire household are healthcare providers and were able to deal with the ordeal. Last week, she tested negative for the virus, but she revealed that her blood works will always show that she has the antibodies.

There was no stigma with the disease at her home, which she notes is a different reality to the public’s reaction.

“Personally, I feel like while it’s a global pandemic I feel that a lot of persons are treating this COVID more like an HIV/AIDS virus,” she said.

“I would say that the virus is a serious thing but the reality of it all is corona is here to stay. COVID is here to stay. It’s not going. So with the whole lockdown and all that while I understand that’s here to like to stop the spread of COVID and reduce the death rate and all that different stuff, but the reality is the country could be closed for a year or two years, COVID is still gonna always gonna be here. So the only thing I can say to persons is to just take the necessary precautions as in taking your vitamins, ensure that you do proper hand washing.

“You can do all of these things and you still cannot stop yourself from contracting the virus. So I would say don’t think as the virus as a death sentence. Think of it more as I contracted it. I have it...how can I try to self-quarantine myself for the period as to where the virus is no longer contractible.”