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Day Zero – I Think…

Thursday 31 March 2022 Day Zero – I Think…

They call it Day Zero. My Day Zero may have started the night before when I began to cough. Morning Zero started at work when I found out I was a close contact, again. Not just a close contact, but a close contact of three people who I had spent a significant amount of time with over the last number of days. This meant that I was surrounded by Covid in a way I had not previously been. She was gunning for me now.

Mid-morning on Thursday I was clearing my throat of a tickle and fending off a popping sensation in my ears. It wasn’t going away so I notified my manager of how I was feeling. Wide-eyed, peering over her coffee cup, her eyebrows showed her concern: “really!?”. “Really”, I replied. “If you feel you need to do a test, just go and do it. Better off knowing”.

Off I went on what I didn’t realise would be a wild goose chase for an antigen test. Naas was a Covid hotspot, well, the hottest spot in the country the previous week, so nowhere seemed to be able to keep antigen tests in stock. Lidl was out and Choice had one left. A saliva one. It’s certainly a new experience to have to hock up whatever Covid might be in the back of your throat, but it came back extremely faintly positive, I think. It was unclear. 

Skeptical, I went on the hunt for another. Tesco, no joy. Circle K supplied the goods and a dirty look from the cashier as a bonus. Negative. Clear as day. Confusing, but I went back to work for the last 20 minutes of my shift.

I got into my car to go home, and my first antigen test was now showing positive. Faintly so, but positive. Fuck. I came home and waved around my vaguely positive antigen in a weird triumph to my aggressively positive housemate and to my other housemate who is high-risk yet negative. A giggle might lighten the confusion, I’d hoped. I proceeded to do a number of antigen tests of differing brands, trialing throat swabs, nasal swabs, the works. Negative.

I couldn’t understand it. I went to another Choice and picked up another saliva test. Positive. What do the saliva tests know that the others don’t? My throat swabs were definitely not very successful – that shit is difficult without throwing up. I informed my manager, and she said not to come in the next day and just see what the weekend brought.

Whilst apparently not incredibly infectious, I did a quick shop and loaded up on veggies, crisps, and beer. It was frantic, unplanned, and maybe not my wisest move. I figured that people who are more symptomatic than I and don’t realise they’re positive swan around unbeknownst to themselves every day. Half of my antigen tests couldn’t even pick it up. I stocked up and prepared myself to be bolstered to the house at least for the foreseeable.

And so, it began. 

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