A flurry here yesterday afternoon as Dr. Heather Morrison announced that two employees of the A&W burger joint in Charlottetown had tested positive for COVID-19. As it happened, Oliver had been through the drive-thru of A&W on Friday; presumably not a great COVID transmission vector, but as close as we’d bumped up against it.
Simultaneously, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday. In ye olde times I would have said I just had a mild cold, or perhaps I simply had a bad sleep, but I had a headache, sniffles, and felt achy. The Premier has been making a particular effort of late, at his briefings, to drive home the “you’re not being a calamity holler if you get yourself tested” point, and so I decided the prudent course of action was for me and Oliver to both get tested.
I drove us over to the Park Street testing clinic, in the old government garage, and we breezed right in. A few questions from well-masked-and-gowned clinicians—symptoms? out of province travel?—and then a quick and painless nasal swab, and we were done. Probably 20 minutes for the entire endeavour.
When we got home, I fired up my automated test results checking system (it needed a few tweaks, as the back end had changed a little); Oliver’s negative test result came back in a gravity-defying 4 hours, around 8:30 p.m., but mine didn’t arrive overnight and well into today, leaving me a little anxious for most of the day. The provincial system only provides results for negative tests—if your test is positive, you get a personal call from Public Health—so I was on tenterhooks waiting for the phone to ring as well.
But then, at 3:30 p.m., my own negative result came back.
I am, to say the least, relieved. And I’m thankful that I live in a place where our testing infrastructure and public health apparatus are well-organized, and where testing is freely and easily available.
Late today came the announcement that we are about to enter a “circuit breaker” phase for two weeks, moving to the “yellow” alert level; as I’m already chastened by my weekend experience, I was already disinclined to leave the house, so not much will be changed for me for this new phase.
Clik here to view.
