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Quarantined within a quarantine: A personal experience of Covid-induced confinement
Opinion | Articles | John S. Shilshi | 14-Apr-2022
It was on the 15th of January 2022 that I began to feel unusually uneasy. There was an indescribable discomfort all over my body, which was triggered by a combination of dullness, weakness and absence of appetite or thirst. Just the thought of eating or drinking anything made me nauseous. By late afternoon the same day, the uneasiness became more pronounced, with signs and symptoms such as fever, sore throat and coughing, which strongly pointed towards Covid19. Nevertheless, in the absence of a clinical test result, it could only be suspected and presumed that I might have actually contracted the nasty virus.
A test on the following day settled all the uncertainties. It confirmed that I had indeed tested positive for Covid19. Therefore, as per the government’s directive, I was to be home-quarantined – meaning no outside venturing or contact with others, including my neighbours. In fact, I was to stay away from my family members too, which meant that I was compelled to be quarantined within the quarantine – confined to my room all alone. My door remained closed perpetually, while my food and beverages were placed on a stool in front of the door, notified through a light knock on the door by whoever served me. Whenever there was need for cleaning or replenishing, we were all mandatorily masked-up in precaution.
This very strict and regimented confinement reminded me of a story my late father told us in our childhood days. He narrated how a family member who suffered from Tuberculosis, a disease then considered contagious and incurable, was confined to one corner of a granary in his village, and food and water served to him through a small hole created on the wall for that purpose. It also flashed back memories of some movie scenes showing how dreaded criminals were confined to isolation cells in prisons and their food and water served through pigeon holes. I was neither the Tuberculosis patient nor a dreaded criminal in a prison cell, but when confined and fed in the same manner, it amused me.
Factually, that 21x16 feet space became my only world, with the washroom serving me as the monotony breaker whenever I visited, and the balcony the only point from where I could get some glimpses of the outside world, though uni-directional. My bed was the most treasured item in my small world, which gave some solace and comfort to my virus-infected and tired body. But beyond a point, the bed, the sheets, the pillow, all looked irritating as constant visual contact with them added to the confinement boredom. My desktop computer became my best friend not because it allowed me to do any serious work, but helped me while away time, which never seemed to move. It also provided some variety to the monotonous life as it threw up different things via the internet.
The ordeal, however, was fortunately short-lived, because on the fourth day of my confinement, my family members – wife and son, too complained of fever and other symptoms. Therefore, they too took the mandatory test and were reported positive. With this the whole house opened up to one another and my incarceration ended sooner than expected. Our house became a club of ‘positives’ – dining on the same table and watching television together, without wearing masks. Our outside supplies being dropped at the doorstep for good fifteen days were the only thing that went on unchanged since we did not want to expose others. My doctor friends told me that we were in fact hit by the Omicron wave, which they said was not as potent as the Delta variant. They also said that the two doses of vaccine we took earlier stood us in good stead, resulting in the fever not persisting beyond three/four days. My perceived notion of me being physically fit however was beaten hollow, when confronted by the Corona virus. It took me at least twenty days to be fully fit and be back to normal life.
No doubt the experience was not at all a pleasant one, therefore, not worth recalling. But there were lessons learnt. First of all, being Covid positive tested my ability to remain positive mentally, since that was the only way I could beat the nasty infection. Secondly, it made me realised the importance of being vaccinated, because around the same time I fell to the virus, two other friends of mine, who unfortunately opted against getting themselves vaccinated, too had contacted the virus. While I recovered in my self-quarantine and through regular home treatment, they landed straight to the ICU and took much longer to recover. Thirdly, having endured the pain the infection inflicted and the traumatic feeling of being confined all alone as opposed to when down with other sicknesses, my empathy towards people in similar situations increased.
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