I got my positive test after I went to bed and I am now getting a stream of SMS and emails telling me to stay put.
It’s a surprise as it’s been three days since I did my test and five days since I had a bout of coughing which got me thinking I might be infected
I live in an 800 square foot flat in the City of London and my partner lives with me. We have a small stockpile of food for the days ahead and though both of us have fluey symptoms, I am more annoyed than frightened.
I guess I’ll be counted as one of the 57,000 who had tested positive yesterday and my testing positive is statistically insignificant, but it feels strange all the same, to “have it”.
Infact, I’m one of the 4% of Londoners who the ONS reckon were infected over the new year! You can see the impact of the new variant
So now the NHS have to work their backsides off to test and trace. I haven’t been to the shops but I have been out running and cycling as part of my exercise and I have details of my routes on my Fitbit. I haven’t seen a soul I know (but Stella) since before Christmas.
This gives me a sense of guilt but also a weird feeling of unreality. I ran nearly 12 kilometers between 6.30 and 8pm yesterday – how could I have Covid and do that?. What risk to others did I create running along the banks of the Thames from Tower to Vauxhall Bridge?
Immediate denial
Opening the mail and reading I was positive , my first thought was “false positive!”. Covid is not something to happen to white professionals who spend too much of their time writing blogs!
My second thought (and this is a wicked one) was that I had been better not to have tested and so serve our my period of infection in blissful ignorance. Normally I would be preparing to go to the Wesleyan Chapel this morning. I had a swim booked for this afternoon at the London Fields Lido, I am in my running gear as I type!
Which is why testing is – I guess – so important. Even though my symptoms were mild, they were enough to get me to run down to the Guildhall in the City. If I had not done so, I would be adding to the R still further (and the nearly three days that have passed since my test suggest there is a cost of delay – how high, I dread to think).
So what now?
In the short term, I will be staying inside, so will my partner. We love each other’s company and have found ways to carry on our work within the tiny confines of our flat.
Self-isolating is not a hardship though my body craves exercise like a puppy! I had to self- isolate twice over the summer as I had an operation.
And after isolation? We presumably have some kind of immunity? Does this mean we are de-prioritized for vaccinations?
The thought that I may now get properly sick and need to go to hospital is very far from the front of my mind, though I guess that possibility persists.
More likely though is that I and my partner spend a few days in isolation, thanking God that we are surviving a virus that has done others so much damage and that I got the test early.
Don’t feel COVID positive- but I am! pic.twitter.com/nNySY17UAC
— Henry Tapper (@henryhtapper) January 3, 2021