{"id":137304,"date":"2021-08-31T07:41:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=137304"},"modified":"2021-08-31T07:41:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T07:41:41","slug":"covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-i-got-covid-at-an-auckland-mall-heres-whats-happened-since","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-i-got-covid-at-an-auckland-mall-heres-whats-happened-since\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: I got Covid at an Auckland mall. Here’s what’s happened since"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week, an Auckland mother told how her worst fears were realised when the Covid-19 test that her son took on his 22nd birthday came back positive. Here, he tells his own story.<\/strong><\/p>\n OPINION<\/strong><\/p>\n A nasal swab isn’t exactly the greatest birthday present, but the positive result three days later was notably worse. I had been symptomatic for two days prior: a cough, headache, and a loss of smell.<\/p>\n On the day I was tested, I wasn’t expecting a positive result given there were no potential exposure sites that I could point to.<\/p>\n This changed two days later when a large west Auckland mall that I had briefly visited was added to the list. I thought it was a long shot – I’d used self-service at the checkout and talked with no one – but a link was established.<\/p>\n Three days later I was awoken by a phone call from the doctor’s surgery where I was swabbed. I had tested positive, their first case.<\/p>\n Following this call was another from the public health contact tracers and after a quick shower I recounted my symptoms, whether I knew anyone who had tested positive for Covid and any locations of interests I had visited.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The indirect nature of my encounter with the infection placed me in an exclusive group of cases where there were no personal links in this growing Auckland cluster.<\/p>\n I only needed to recall the two days before I was symptomatic. I awoke feeling terrible on the second full day of lockdown. Both days had been spent inside with my chain of transmission beginning and ending at home.<\/p>\n My mother was my sole close contact who is now in two weeks’ self-isolation. Against the odds, she has returned two negative tests.<\/p>\n I was told that someone from Jet Park quarantine facility would be in touch within a day and this was followed by an email telling me what to expect for my stay in Jet Park: two weeks of quarantine in a hotel room.<\/p>\n There was just one pressing question I had that remained unanswered \u2013 could I bring my desktop computer? After a stressful 24-hour-plus wait at home I finally got a phone call telling me I was to be picked up within the hour, and with my computer.<\/p>\n After a long hour of Covid sweats a van arrived at the bottom of my driveway and the driver, wearing full PPE, offered me hand sanitiser as I loaded my belongings into a small van.<\/p>\n I, the lone passenger, was instructed to sit at the rear. All seats were covered, and a screen separated the passenger section from the driver, a reminder that I was a carrier of the virus that had killed millions across the world, and that had brought this country to a standstill more than once.<\/p>\n During the drive my lunch and dinner were ordered for me but outside of this we drove to the south Auckland quarantine facility in silence.<\/p>\n As soon as I arrived my belongings were loaded on to a trolley and my hands were sanitised again, and then once more in the lobby. I rode the lift to level two alone. A nurse followed a minute later.<\/p>\n I was shown to my room and briefed; I am yet to leave it. You’re allowed daily access to the cordoned-off section of carpark for recreation but the view from my window is grim. It’s far from an appealing stroll through suburban Auckland to a secluded bay.<\/p>\n All meals and housekeeping requests are delivered to your door, which is never to be opened without wearing a mask. Barista-made coffee and alcoholic drinks are on offer, but the taxpayer’s generosity falls short of subsidising them. The food consists of three large meals a day, morning tea and afternoon tea, with any dietary needs met. I am unable yet to speak to the taste.<\/p>\n I receive daily calls from the Auckland District Health Board to check my symptoms and am visited every few days by nurses in full PPE to have my vitals taken.<\/p>\n My days are spent gaming, listening to podcasts, and watching films \u2013 a very smooth transition from life in lockdown. This, as someone who doesn’t have the misfortune of being gravely ill, is the greatest sadness of this whole experience.<\/p>\n When I’m ultimately released in a week’s time, provided I’ve been asymptomatic for 72 hours, it’s back into a lockdown. It’s a lockdown with no clear end in sight, and that weighs upon my mind heavily as this carrot of freedom is waved in my face.<\/p>\n It’s not lost on me that my experience with Covid-19 has been extremely fortunate and far-removed from the suffering this virus has caused.<\/p>\n Ambulances leave from the facility daily; I watch them from my window as they slowly snake out of the carpark towards the exit. Neighbours whom I never met delivered from the relative luxury of a hotel room to a hospital ward.<\/p>\nA confronting trip to MIQ<\/h2>\n
'Ambulances leave daily'<\/h2>\n