‘I tested positive for typhoid, then for Covid’

Bhubaneswar: A 51-year-old shop owner of Aska town in Ganjam district, who has recently returned home from a Covid care centre near Berhampur after recovering from SARS-CoV-2, recounted how he initially tested positive for typhoid.
The man, who owns a medicine shop, suspects that he had contracted the virus from a customer. “I would take all precautions while running the shop and handling items. Since the second week of June, I had even started staying alone in a room in my house. On June 23, I developed a fever and got some routine tests done. My report showed that I had typhoid. I took the necessary medicines and continued to self-isolate at home,” he recalled.
On June 28, he got tested for Covid as the fever had not subsided. “My report returned positive for Covid. Government officials called me on July 1 and informed me about the development, but they they did not take me to the Covid care centre. I had to call back the officials. Only then was I taken to the Covid care centre at Sitalapalli on July 2. I took all my medicines with me. I had lost my sense of smell and taste. I had a cough but had no difficulty breathing,” he added.
He recalled the district administration changing the caterer at the centre after the inmates complained of the quality of food being served.
“On the second day of my stay at the centre, a new caterer from Berhampur served us food. The breakfast, lunch and dinner were tasty and healthy. We were given vitamin B complex, vitamin C, E and zinc tablets. If anybody had a cough, they would get Azithromycin and Cetirizine. Paracetamol was given to patients with a fever. If anybody’s condition deteriorated, the authorities took them to a Covid hospital,” he said.
Since the man had removed himself to a different room of his house even before he developed symptoms, no one from his family was infected. “After I went to the Covid care centre, my two sons and wife were in home isolation for 14 days. They were fine. I was also not unduly worried about myself as I do not have any other health complications. I returned home on July 8 and remained in isolation for another 14 days,” he added.
The recovered patient urged people to follow government guidelines strictly to break the chain of virus transmission. “Many people are not obeying physical distancing norms or wearing masks. People in Aska are behaving as if nothing has happened,” he added.
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