Corona Virus

[KayKay]

I'm in quarantine. I was in close contact (seated five feet away in a meeting with both of us wearing masks) with someone who tested positive 2 days later.

I feel fine, but we have learned that means nothing.

[snafu]

The things that helped me the most when I had it were heating pads, and Rapid Release Tylenol.

[KayKay]

Hopefully I won't need to know that, but thank you for the info!

I'm still symptom free with three days left of quarantine.

[snafu]

Are you free?

[KayKay]

I'm free! Woo hoo!

I have been being very careful about social distancing and mask wearing though. I followed County Health Dept Guidelines which said I had to quarantine for 7 days. IMO 14 days would be safer, so I'm back at work but mask wearing and hiding in my office being as asocial as possible. The mask wearing is because of COVID.

[snafu]

Isolate for 7 days?!?

DH had to isolate for 14 (because I had it), DSD had to isolate for longer too because a friend had it.

[KayKay]

Yeah, those are our county guidelines. I am following the instructions of the person at our organization who communicates with the Health Department, and she was clear about that. I thought maybe it was 7 days with a negative test (I was willing to test) but she said nope... just 7 days.

But like I said... I don't think that's really long enough so I have been isolating as best I can in our workspace. I have a private office and can have conversations from 10 feet away, so that is what I do. The printer, the restroom, filing cabinets etc... I am masked. I also have a pretty substantial air purifier (don't know if it works, but it can't hurt) that I have running in my office.

[LucyVanPelt]

Our local health department changed quarantine rules, too.

If we are exposed to someone not in our household, we can test on day 5 and be released on day 7. If we are living with a person, we have to quarantine for 10 days after the covid patient is released from isolation! Yikes!

[KayKay]

The part about quarantining after being exposed makes sense to me. It's important to quarantine, but it's also important to not disrupt lives to the point where people refuse to cooperate. If 7 days is adequate according to health authorities, I'm good with that. I'll follow my own comfort level on my own.

The part that DOESN'T make sense to me is the people who have Covid. The person who exposed me did the "You know, I DID have a slight cough that I thought was allergies and post nasal drip the Saturday before" when she talked to the nurse who put her in quarantine. So they counted that as the start of her symptoms and started counting for her quarantine then, even though she went downhill FAST - in the space of two hours - on the Thursday after. She was back at work 5 days after she had to be driven home because she was feeling so badly. She had two household members come down with symptoms and test positive during those 5 days. She hasn't been able to stay at work more than a half day because she is feeling so poorly, and she did miss one day altogether.

I had to drop something off in her office one day and she didn't have a mask on. I didn't stay.

I don't understand why quarantine doesn't end X number of days after symptoms go away or a positive test versus X number of days after symptoms start. (I know more than a few people who had no symptoms but found out they had Covid when they had to test for other reasons).