What to do when COVID 19 enters your house....

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My husband is an essential worker as he is in the cash in transit business.  His company has to make sure that all the ATM’s are loaded so that people can actually draw money in these dire times.  

At the end of the month, it is always a very busy time for them as some ATMs have to be loaded more than once per day.  If you live in South Africa, you know that some people have no regard for any rules or regulations.  The pension grant money which people over sixty receive in our country is handed out in cash in areas where people do not have access to an ATM.  

Most of these people fall in the “dangerous” and “vulnerable” age group and most if not all of them DO NOT understand the concept of social distancing. They stood there in long rows waiting for their money and there was not even a sign of any social distancing.  

Even before the lockdown, there was a limit set to the number of people that can be together in a group.  Apparently, this rule did not apply to the elderly because all they cared about was to get money to buy food.  

I feel extremely sorry for them, as there is such a shortage of masks and gloves in the country and these people do not even have food to eat, so I can understand why they were not wearing protection. They can hardly afford food, and with the recent spike in prices for gloves and masks, no one can blame them if they don’t wear any protection.  

They were willing to take their chances because they were in extreme need and for some people that money is the only money, they receive monthly.  They also received this money after the lockdown started, so I can fully understand why there were disregarding the rules. 

Thousands of people were together in these groups, just sitting and waiting.  It had to be done, as there was no other way. 

My husband’s team work with a skeleton staff to prevent staff members from being affected.  They wear gloves, masks and they sanitize the whole day, but to go out and fix a broken ATM you actually need to touch it.  Can you imagine how many people touch that ATM on a daily basis?

As I was already paranoid about the whole COVID-19 pandemic I made my husband shower the minute he arrived home, and I washed his clothes immediately.  You never know what could have jumped onto his clothes, and I was not prepared to stay captive and then he brings his germs into the house.  

Easier said than done though.  

On Wednesday night he developed a terrible fever and he went to bed early. He woke me up at five o clock the next morning and I could clearly see that he was not himself.  I put the fan on him, gave him medication to break the fever and we tried to sleep again.  Three hours later his fever spiked and I gave him the next lot of medication.  

He informed the office and was asked to self-isolate immediately.  So here we are, too scared to come close to him.  We know about social distancing so my son moved upstairs, and we put him in my son's room so that I could continue working.  We sanitized our bedroom, and it felt weird sleeping without him for the first night, but we survived.  

We had to phone for an appointment to be tested and had to wait twenty-four hours before he could be tested.  

It was the first time in ten days that I left the house, so I was quite excited to get out of the house even if it was only for a COVID-19 test.  Being paranoid I looked like a space traveler when I sat behind the wheel.  He was supposed to sit at the back of the vehicle so we could keep our social distance.  

It was a pleasant drive up to the doctor's office.  Then things started to irritate me.  

Firstly we had to wait outside the doctor's room in the sun until the lady was finished on the phone. Once the door was opened, the receptionist gave us a form to fill in and charged us R 200 for the form.  We were then sent to the COVID-19 testing center around the corner to do the actual test. This cost us another R 950.  

The only reason why we did the test was that my husband was in contact with a very large crowd of people and if he was positive he could have infected A LOT of people. 

This was the responsible thing to do.  We stepped into the center and no one was available.  I knocked on the table and a lady appeared from the back.  She had no gloves on and she had no mask on.  What is this hype about if the people at the COVID testing center do not even worry to wear the protective clothing?

She handed me a form to fill in and then she handed me a pen.  Who knows who touched that pen before me....but I took it and began writing.  I got to a point in the form where they asked how many people he had been exposed to.  I stopped and told her that I have no idea who, but it was a very large crowd.  She told me to leave it blank.  

It was as if she wasn't really bothered.  On the next page, you had to fill in the names of ALL the people you had been in contact with if you think you were infected, but once again I wasn't sure.  I asked the lady what I should do and once again explained the situation to her.  I told her that he had been in contact with more than a thousand people in the duration of the last three days. 

"Oh, that is a problem.  Please write down all the names." I nearly lost it, but smiled and handed her the form. 

I obviously did not know the names of these people as they were all strangers to us.  The lady still did not look worried.  She took the form and then walked to the back of the center.  She appeared five minutes later dressed up as an astronaut.  Spacesuit with a welding helmet and all.  Suddenly she was worried about the germs spreading and could hardly walk but she struggled forth and did the test.  

The test was not pleasant at all.  She stuck that stick so far into my husband's nose you should have seen him pull a face.  It seemed awful. I just laughed and laughed. I even took photos.

After she was finished I asked her if there were any other precautions that we could take, and she just shook her head and handed us another form. Luckily we didn't have to pay for that one.  She told us that we will have the results in 48 hours.  We are still waiting.  We phoned, but there is just no answer.  The fact that it is weekend might have something to do with it, but our nerves are shot. 

I woke up this morning with a fever spiking even higher than his....so perhaps I should not have laughed at him when he did the test so I will be going back there on Monday.