February 28, 2021, my dad came home from work feeling unwell, turns out he has the flu. The next day, he still wasn't feeling well so he decided to not go to work that day. As protocol in their company, he needs to get a medical certificate, so that's what he did, he went to the hospital to get checked up and to get a medical certificate, he was asked what symptoms he's having, cold, cough, fever, all within the typical symptoms of Covid-19. The doctor decided that my dad should be tested for Covid-19 to see if he was positive, he complied and took the test.
The next day, he received a call from the hospital saying that he did test positive for the virus. He was instructed to wait for a call from our LGU(Local Government Unit) to await further instructions and stay isolated for the moment. The problem was, he and I live in a small home together along with our pets(5 cats, 2 adult dogs, and 2 puppies). 1 bedroom, 1 toilet & bath. Isolation won't be that easy for our case. So when our LGU contacted my father, he was given a choice, 1. to come with them and stay at a facility where he'd be quarantined for 2 weeks or 2. to stay at home, self-quarantined with me for 2 weeks. We talked and chose the latter option, because, in our minds, we're not really sure when he actually got infected and there might be a chance that I am already infected too, so why not just stay together but also, apart. He slept in the living room, I stayed in the bedroom since he does most of the work in the house. We ate at different times from each other, disinfect the bath every time he uses it, disinfect everything he comes in contact with. Tried our best so that I won't be infected too if I haven't even got the virus yet.
3 days after our self-quarantining started, he lost his sense of taste, and I caught a cold and fever. So we thought, I am also infected, but still not quite sure yet, so we still continued keeping apart with each other. We updated our contact person in our LGU about our situation. They said I don't have to be tested for Covid-19 right away since there's still a lack of symptoms from me and that I would only be tested after we completed our 2 weeks of isolation.
After the first week, my cold and fever started to settle down. I started feeling better, but my dad still hasn't got his sense of taste back. Our LGU kept in touch with us almost everyday and kept giving us essentials like medicine to fight off the symptoms and also some food like canned goods and instant noodles.
A couple of days before our 2 weeks of isolation comes to an end, our LGU contacted us and said that we won't be needing to be tested for Covid-19 once our isolation is completed since there are no more symptoms from us, we just have to stay isolated for another week if the symptoms didn't come back, and another 2 weeks if they did. My dad got his sense of taste back, we've both recovered from cold, cough, and fever. I didn't know how to feel about that decision, since there's still a chance that the virus could still be in our system even after 2 weeks and could last more than 20 days. So there's still the uncertainty of whether we still have the virus or not. But our LGU assured us that even if we still are infected after 3 weeks, the critical time of the virus is the first 2 weeks, those are the critical times where the virus is still active and can spread to others, but after those 2 weeks, it'll become a dead virus and won't be able to infect others.
So we complied, we finished our 3 weeks of isolation. But again, as protocol where my dad works, he needs to get tested once again to make sure he's negative for the virus. So he did, and he tested negative this time. Thank goodness!
But I guess luck isn't really on our side, since after our 3 weeks of isolation, our government decided that a large region of our country should be under community quarantine once again. So, it still feels like we're still isolated from the outside world weeks after our self-quarantine. The only thing we can be thankful for is that our symptoms weren't severe and didn't go any worse. And that my dad still regularly receives his salary even when we're quarantined.
So that's the story of when my dad tested positive for Covid-19.
Thank you for your time, and as always, always keep your cool.
Cheers!
