Just a few days before Christmas I started to feel unwell, I was feverish, weak, with a blocked nose and cough. I immediately ordered a swab, which tested positive for Covid-19. Unfortunately, since I got sick, my flatmates and some other friends also contracted the virus.
On the 31st December 2019, the Chinese government reported the first case of a novel coronavirus. Since then we followed the escalation, we were all astonished while this vicious virus was spreading around the world. Many have lost someone they loved, others have lost their jobs as a consequence of the lockdowns and almost everyone is feeling lonely.
In one way or another, everyone is being affected by this pandemic, and while I was already feeling isolated and my mood was extremely low as a result of the lockdown, on the 23rd of December 2020 I also tested positive for Covid-19.
How did I get it? I’m not quite sure but I think it was at work.
The first symptoms came on the evening of the 22nd when I started to feel tired, weak, cold, with a running nose and a bit of cough. I managed to book a test online, which arrived the following day, but as this happened during the festive period the result took four days to come back.
I
have to admit that I was lucky and that I experienced only mild symptoms, and the biggest challenge I had to face was just the long and boring self-isolation.
My flatmates -who also tested positive for Covid and also experiencing mild symptoms- and I decided to cook an Italian-style Christmas lunch anyway, despite having completely lost my sense of smell and taste.
It was a bit daunting eating homemade pasta served with homemade ragú without being able to taste.
Despite my flatmates having been laughing with me about that for days, my mood was quickly going down.
I was feeling lonely and as the days were passing by I was feeling lazier and lazier, and I didn’t have the energy to do anything.
Being stuck home for so long was really affecting my mental health.
After my statutory 10 days self-isolation, and as I didn’t have to return to work at the coffee shop for a few more days, I decided to remain locked at home for a while longer.
I couldn’t take a second test to verify my effective healing from the virus and as I didn’t have any more symptoms, the NHS discharged me as a recovered patient.
What if I still had the virus and I was contagious?
The fear of possibly transmitting the virus to someone else, who could have suffered great pain from it, forced me not to leave the house until I had to return to work.
Since I got sick, many friends of mine also contracted Covid-19, either at work or at home through a flatmate, but when we shared between each other our Covid experience, we all agreed that the government and the NHS are still very unprepared and very disorganised with dealing with the pandemic.
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