My 3-year-old got COVID back in July.
About a day after Eira, our 3-year-old, came with us to the new office on a Saturday, she started to develop a high fever (around 40°C / 104°F). She was not lethargic or in pain though. In fact, she was more energetic than both of us — Florence was worried about Eira’s unusually high temperature the night before and kept waking me up to run errands for them.
We bathed her, gave her ibuprofen syrup, and gave her extra water to drink and ice cubes to play with. Still, her temperature hovered around 39°C (102°F) and would not drop further, unlike a few weeks earlier when she caught the flu.
We immediately suspected that she got COVID, and her positive Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) confirmed it.
I duly reported her positive result to the authority. After filling in a few details for her online, Eira was issued with a quarantined order for 14 days, and someone would come on the following day to perform a PCR test to confirm. (As a measure to deter people from faking the RAT and getting out of vaccination for a few months I guess)
Florence and I were classified as “close contact” and were asked to do a RAT. Both came back negative. As we both had at least two doses of COVID vaccines, we were issued a shorter quarantine order. If our RAT results were negative on days 6 and 7, we would be considered to have completed our home quarantine, and the quarantine order would automatically be ceased.
So a 3-year-old got issued with a 14-day quarantined order and her parents 7-day. What are the parents supposed to do between day 8 to day 14? Let her stay at home alone whilst the parents head back to work as their job may well be on the line? Get someone to babysit a quarantined 3-year-old and risk getting infected? This whole thing just does not make a lot of sense to me.
Then a nurse called us and checked on Eira. She also gave us some “tips” on preventing other household members, i.e. me and Florence, from being infected. Advice given included wearing a facemask at all times, cleaning everything she touched with bleach, and donning a face shield (in addition to a face mask) when bathing her. We may turn on the air-con, but she suggested we open a window to ensure air ventilation.
I kind of understood her point of view, but those “tips” were bloody impractical. Besides, we figured out it might actually be better if both of us got infected and got this whole thing over and done with as soon as possible.
So basically:
- We were going to spend at least a week in a 400 sq ft apartment with a sick 3-year-old.
- In a household that seldomly cooked and thus had little groceries stored.
- In an area that had no Food panda / Deliveroo.
- Not allowed to leave our home or risked getting fined HK$10,000 (~US$1,300) each.
We were also told by some friends to call a number. Apparently, the government would send us some groceries to live through the quarantine period. Why it was not automatically done after issuing the quarantined orders is beyond me. Anyway, we called and got through on the 3rd or 4th attempt.
“Someone will bring you some stuff tomorrow or the day after.”
We were lucky that my retired parents lived nearby, and they got us takeaways for the next few days.
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The next day, a guy dressed in a hazmat suit turned up at the door. He then gave us two cotton swabs and asked us to do the sampling OURSELVES and put the used swab into a tube provided while he waited outside.
“Why frigging bothered with the hazmat suit then?” I murmured to Florence. Nonetheless, nasal and throat swabs were taken and the discomfort caused Eira to cry for a while. Returned the sample to Hazmat guy and he went on his merry way, leaving us to comfort our crying 3-year-old on our own.
Eira soon began to respond to the antipyretic (and YouTube) that morning, and we finally had some peace and quiet to carry out some remote work at home. Still no sign of the government-issued groceries though.
The nurse’s tips were not heeded, and Eira slept with us as per usual. Apart from the slight fever and some cough every now and then, she was pretty normal. Both of us still tested negative (and negative throughout the quarantine order). Eira’s RAT was still positive though, but the “T” line was now barely visible and we were hopeful she would be fine soon.
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The groceries finally arrived on the third day. 3 packs of Ramen, a few cans of various food, crackers, a kilo of rice, a pound of bread and a pack of instant Ovaltine. For one person.
So we got 3 bags of the same stuff. We were also sent some masks, some Chinese and Western medicine, some more Rapid Antigen Test kits (although I found some of them faulty when I tried to use them later) and a pulse oximeter for Eira.
The groceries were nothing fancy, but at least it gave us a welcome break from takeways. I did however, quite enjoyed the instant Ovaltine and might actually buy some more in the future.
Eira also had her PCR result back on day 3. “Preliminary positive” as stated on the record and she was advised not to take any PCR test in the next 3 months. The genetic fragments of the dead virus could still be detected apparently. She was also encouraged to have her vaccination in 2 to 3 month time after her recovery. We would probably wait for a bit longer though, just in case.
Eira was basically free of all symptoms after 4 days, her RAT also returned negative on day 4. Having her essentially under house arrest was probably worse than getting COVID, but her quarantined order would not end until day 14.
Both Florence and I were not infected even though we snuggled with Eira throughout (Maybe because of the vaccines we had?). We returned to work on day 7 as we both had some important deadlines to meet. We were lucky that our parents (both vaccinated 4 times(!)) were able to babysit Eira when we were off to work. I do have sympathy for those who were less fortunate and needed to beg for extended leaves from work to look after the kids. As far as I know, without the quarantine order, the employer was under no obligation to grant you any leaves.
All in all, it was not a very pleasant experience being forced to stay at home for a week with only very limited support from the authority. But after hearing some friends’ experience on being sent to quarantine facilities for the duration of the order, we were just glad that we got to stay at home.