A family in the northern Costa Blanca has been in self isolation for over 20 days, without knowing if they have contracted Covid-19 due to the delay in receiving results from their PCR tests. The mother, from Finestrat, was the first to test positive and has been quarantined in a room at the family home since August 18th, unable to be in contact with other members of the family. The father and three children managed to eventually get a test done ten days later but are still waiting on the results to find out if they have the virus.
The family are awaiting contact from health authorities regarding tests they underwent on August 28th, a delay that the father considers ‘unacceptable’ and which he believes is causing the family serious physical, occupational and emotional damage.
The ordeal of this family began on Tuesday, August 18, when the woman began to notice symptoms of Covid-19. The next day, when she did not see any improvement in her state of health, she contacted the telephone number 900-300-555, the number set up by the Generalitat Valenciana to report suspected cases of the disease, and was informed that the entire family unit should remain at home and that mother had to go the following day to Benidorm health centre to undergo a PCR test. She went the next day and five days later, her worst fears were realised – she tested positive for Covid-19. They then began to try to find out if the rest of the family had been infected and three days later, were eventually summoned to undergo tests.
Initially the family was informed that they had to go on different days because they had been assigned different doctors, although the complications for the father of having to bring each family member on different days led doctors from the health centre to at last reschedule the appointments for the same day and time. This was on August 28th and to date, the family still don’t know the results of those tests.
Dad Jorge explained that his wife is in a room without contact with him or the children since day one. She has symptoms, he said, but not serious. Since his own self isolation began, Jorge himself noticed that during the first few days he lost his sense of smell and taste but nothing else. The children, age 6, 14 and 17 are not displaying symptoms but this is no reassurance to Jorge as often, the disease in children manifests with mild or no symptoms.
“We could all be infected or none of us, but this uncertainty of not knowing is unbearable,” said Jorge.
Jorge is a waiter and has been unable to go to work since August 19. He managed to get time off, although he is conscious that “not all people who are in our same situation, which there are many, have managed this.” Furthermore, the children will not be able to return to school this week.
“If we knew that the children were fine, they would have been able to go with their grandmother or with some other relative so as not to be exposed to a possible contagion at home, but we cannot risk that they too might have the coronavirus and can infect someone,” he explained.