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Ski couple Aud (76) and Gunnar Gulliksen (73) started this year infected with the mutated coronavirus.
Now that they are finally healthy again, they want to warn others about how extremely contagious they think the mutated variant is.
– It shouldn’t be possible that we were infected, Aud tells Dagbladet.
But they did. And it was Gunnar who contracted the virus first.
Tighter entry rules from March 12
Used face masks
On New Year’s Eve, Gunnar went to visit a friend at the Langhus Nursing Home. Gunnar took infection control very seriously and wore a bandage throughout the visit. Still, this is believed to be where he got infected.
– I did not knock on any door, because they went up automatically, and I sat on a stool at the foot of the friend’s bed, that is, at least one and a half meters from him, and I did not touch anything. The entire visit lasted a maximum of 50 minutes. It is completely impossible to understand that I was infected there, says Gunnar.
– But this virus is extremely contagious, he adds.
The couple have previously appeared in local newspapers, in Østlandets Blad.
The Langhus Life and Services Center has been described as the center of the UK’s mutated variant coronavirus outbreak. This led to the closure of the entire municipality of Nordre Follo on January 22.
Became ill
Two days after visiting the nursing home, Gunnar had the first symptoms. He started coughing dryly.
He booked an hour and took the test the same day. Then a day passed before I received confirmation that I was infected.
– The infection control office and my GP got in touch immediately, says Gunnar, who describes the follow-up as very good.
The friend in the nursing home was also diagnosed with the virus and was transferred to a separate corona room. The couple say they are reasonably certain it was through the nursing home that they became infected. Several others in the nursing home were diagnosed with infection in the following days, and also the nursing home employees have subsequently followed the couple.
Two days after the man, Aud started having her first symptoms. The first test he took was negative, while the second was positive.
Only one action left
Dreaded aggravation
She says the course of her illness and that of her husband was very different.
Aud has a terrible headache.
– I got really sick. The headache was so bad that I couldn’t rest my head on the chair because it hurt so much. I felt very bad and without strength. After a week, I also lost my sense of smell and taste, he says.
Gunnar never did. However, he developed a high fever and lost his appetite.
– The worst was the breath, says Gunnar.
– Fighting to breathe was in itself heavy, and the fear of it getting worse was demanding, he says.
– Scary
For two weeks, the couple felt completely exhausted.
– The disease was something completely different from what I had experienced before, says Aud.
– How?
– I do not know. It looks nothing like anything else. It’s hard to describe, but you really feel like there’s something in the body that definitely shouldn’t be there, he says.
– I do not think you get sick more from the mutated virus than from the original corona virus, continue.
– But it’s scary that it’s so contagious. And it’s scary to think that you never know who can get seriously ill, he says.
It got good again
Like many others, the couple experienced that the second week of the course of the disease was the most intense.
– I was a little anxious for my husband, especially in the second week, because then he couldn’t take anything. He just slept, says Aud.
– It was kind of scary. I have to say it, he adds.
Fortunately, they both got it right.
– I’m totally fine again now. The sense of smell returned after 12 days. Gunnar also slowly but surely recovers, and begins to be himself again, Aud sees and continues:
And I think it’s important to talk about how even if you’ve felt so bad, you’ll be good again. Because when it’s at its worst, it’s pretty heavy, and then it’s good to think it’s going to happen.
insurance
The couple have also experienced that infection control can prevent further infections. On New Years Eve, after Gunnar returned from the nursing home visit, the couple were with some friends.
They kept a great distance from each other all the time, before, during and after dinner, and neither of the friends got infected.
– Fortunately, Gunnar was the furthest of all, says Aud, who asks people to follow infection control advice.
– My clear recommendation is that everyone follow the messages that the authorities bring. It infuriates me when someone says that this is not dangerous and that it is only a mild flu. This is much more serious, says Aud, who now, as immune, says that for the first time in a long time she feels safe.
– It’s a good feeling that I treat everyone else. We bet immunity will last until we get the vaccine, he says.
The couple were informed on January 25 that it was the mutated virus with which they had been infected.
– We expected it. Still, it was good to confirm, say the couple.
