Opinion: The late-night COVID text that made me maintain the cage
The late-night text message scared the crap out of me. I was about to get into bed when I noticed it on my mobile, along with the word “urgent”. It said I had been in close contact with someone who had COVID-19 while on a flight the week before and I needed to self-isolate.
I knew I was likely to be exposed to the virus sooner or later. But quite frankly, I was hoping for later. I'd been exhausted a few moments ago. Now I was wide-eyed and awake. What would I tell my partner, who has respiratory issues and was sleeping in the next room? Would she have to move into an Airbnb or hotel?I found myself muttering and moaning, trying to figure out which bastard on the flight had exposed me.
The next morning I told my partner and we both freaked out together in a non-calm, non-civilised manner. Then we pretended to be calm and civilised and my partner half-packed a suitcase while reading as many medical articles as she could.“Do you still have your sense of smell?” she asked. Yes, I could smell the cigarette smoke wafting through the window from one of my neighbours, while also imagining it creating cell receptors in my lungs that would make me more vulnerable to COVID-19.
My partner decided to stay home, provided I took self-isolation to a new level by remaining largely in my bedroom, which we renamed “the cage”. Stuck with my scenic view of a carpark and the smokers who always congregate in it, I began to wish she’d moved into an Airbnb. I never showed any symptoms and neither, thankfully, did my partner. Still, I can’t help wondering if – or how many more times – this will happen again.
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