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By Chelsea Lotz 
1 hour ago
Cape Town: Any parent understands the stress of Covid-19. Protecting your young comes first and foremost, and that’s how I ended up doing five Covid tests this year at different labs.
The process of getting tested is always emotionally draining. Plagued with worrying thoughts, the question of whether you really have the coronavirus or if it is just the placebo effect brought on by a wave of paranoia as worrying thoughts surround your mind like an unexplored storm is perhaps as stressful as waiting for an outcome.
I got sick during March 2020, with an excruciating cough, fever, and body aches, et al. This was a week after attending an event at the Japanese consulate, with many Asian delegates flying in from abroad.
Total panic hit me, as the news said that Covid-19 had reached South Africa.
After spending three weeks in isolation, he was not improving.
My family, who lives abroad, began to insist that I get tested, as even after a full round of antibiotics my health continued to deteriorate.
I knew I would have to bite the bullet and finally get a Covid-19 test at the time, the makeshift facilities were not available and the tests were strictly for foreigners entering the country.
However, under the circumstances, both the doctor and the hospital immediately approved the test.
My only option at the time was my closest hospital, the Cape Town Medical Clinic, and I can say with complete certainty that their trial procedures are second to none.
If you are waiting to be tested, you must sit outside the hospital on a Covid-19 designated bench, which is frequently disinfected. Yes, I felt like a leper. A man in a full hazmat suit came looking for me.
This being my first test, I thought it seemed to have landed on the moon.
After waiting three hours, I was taken to a testing room and more nurses dressed in hazmat suits arrived, taking every possible precaution. They gave me a nasopharyngeal (nose) swab, which hurt a lot. The nurse changed her glove seven times between entering the room, taking the swab, and placing it in the case. He said it was due to the highly contagious nature of Covid-19.
In South Africa, you get what you pay for, and once I paid for the test, using the lab’s facilities and results, it had cost me R3000! I was enraged. Other counties were offering free tests for their citizens.
It took me more than seven days to receive my results, which was also very frustrating. The test was negative, proving once again that blaming Asians was simply ridiculous.
I had come down with a brutal type of chest flu and a second round of antibiotics was needed.
A few months later, the Covid-19 level five restrictions had been lifted and everything seemed “relatively” normal. I couldn’t wait to get on a plane. I went to Kimberley to visit some friends and after five days I started coughing again, my chest was congested and blocked.
Having just been on a plane, the logical thing was to take a test. Mediclinic Kimberley was fantastic. I had a blood test for Covid antibodies and I immediately received my negative result within six hours. The test and lab results came to roughly R2500. The service itself was worth it.
Hazmat suits were not used and the atmosphere was very relaxed and very efficient. Like a true Capetonian, the dry air and dust of the Northern Cape had taken a toll on my chest, and it was found to be the cause of my horrible cough.
December bought a new variant of Covid-19, said to be up to 70 percent more contagious, and my friends started testing positive. With Christmas approaching, I couldn’t in my right mind celebrate with my loved ones knowing that I might have been exposed to the virus.
So I went to the Indalo Laboratory in Cape Town.
Appointments are made through online reservations for R850, and the wait time is usually 1 to 2 weeks. A week later, I found myself sitting in the most sophisticated, elegant, and state-of-the-art laboratory I had ever seen, feeling transported 50 years into the future. A mouth swab was taken and within 24 hours I got my negative result.
As South Africa recorded its highest number of daily Covid-19 cases, more than 18,000 in one day, doctors and scientists began to grapple with the new variant. Countries around the world called it the “South African strain.”
The virus had mutated, causing the 501.V2 variant. Symptoms include vomiting, burning eyes, loss of taste and smell, and low back pain. Well, as “Murphy’s Law” says, I had all these symptoms, so I went back to the lab.
This time my friends had asked me about booking a test and after doing some research, they informed me that both the Indalo lab at Sea Point and the Bio-smart (aka Biotech) were closed due to overcapacity. .
You know the virus is spreading like a relentless tornado sweeping through society when test facilities are forced to close.
I finally found the Hamadi lab in Claremont, which charges only R780. Waking up at 5am on Saturday to travel and arrive at 8am, and hoping to be the first person there, I arrived to find a huge queue that had already formed.
Hamidi is open 24/7 and has become the last resort for many who have been unable to access the closed labs due to overcapacity. After spending two hours waiting in the hot summer sun, I was finally sent inside for my test.
My hated nasopharyngeal swab was quickly taken. The nurses looked exhausted, tired and fatigued, but the entire process was carried out like a military operation.
Staff ensured that social distancing was maintained, handing out dozens of clipboards and receiving payments outside before the test.
The effort itself was impressive, even if the facility itself wasn’t top-notch.
While I wait for my test results, my advice is that until I have the result there is no point in panic.
The placebo effect is powerful. I recommend bringing reading material for the wait and clearly write your phone number on the form.
If you do not receive your results, you are the only one to blame. Always carry a pen. Last but not least, remember that prevention is better than cure; There’s no point waiting for an ambulance to pick you up when you’re dying, because coronavirus can be detected and fought early on by going to your local lab for a test.
African News Agency (ANA)
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