{"id":20775,"date":"2022-03-17T22:39:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=20775"},"modified":"2024-04-17T11:42:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T03:42:42","slug":"we-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2022\/03\/we-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"We Survive!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Omicron survivors: “keep calm and carry on”.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheryl So<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support from family and friends, having more rest and taking Panadol are the keys to surviving the COVID-19 Omicron variant as four of our university students share their ordeal in fighting against the highly infectious virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has reported more than 650,000 COVID-19 infections and about 4,600 deaths <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to date. More than 90 per cent of the population have had at least one dose of vaccine and most of the fatalities are among unvaccinated senior citizens, according to government data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four university students who had two doses of BioNTech vaccine in 2021 and tested positive in February say people should stay calm as they share their stories on surviving Omicron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Lee tested positive on February 16 and negative on February 26.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Lee had a fever on February 16 so he did a quick test at home and the result was positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After joining a gathering on February 13, he and his group of friends were all infected with Omicron. He suffered from fever, headache, sore throat, stuffy nose and cough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first week was tough. I took Panadol and slept more than ten hours every day. It was terrible to have a sore throat. It was painful whenever I swallowed,\u201d Lee says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kept taking Panadol and got better five days later. I tried my best to finish my schoolwork, but I was too sick to take a mid-term test. The school granted me an exemption and will grade me with another test,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee\u2019s mother also fell ill two days later and suffered from a cough while his brother stayed negative as the family tried to have minimal contact with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had meals in my room. My mother and brother also ate in their own rooms. We wore masks when we went to the toilet, kitchen and living room,\u201d Lee says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee feels thankful that a friend of his dropped a testing kit at his doorstep. \u201cMy mother needed to do a test so that she could apply for paid leave, or else she would have to claim her leave as annual leave,\u201d he says. His mother works in a school and his brother is an office worker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks to my friend\u2026he brought me food and daily necessities when my mom and I were sick. We ordered takeaway food sometimes, as I did not want to bother my friend all the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After waiting for almost 10 days, he received a text message from the Centre for Health Protection on February 26 and was surprised at the \u2018indeterminate\u2019 result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did not receive any phone calls from any government department after the message. We tried calling a phone number we found in the government text message, but the line was always busy,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though tested negative on February 26 at home, Lee has been staying home ever since his recovery. \u201cI do not want to be infected again. I just want to be safe,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee kept chatting with his friends to get rid of his loneliness when staying at home. \u201cIt is really unusual for me to not see my friends for weeks. I think chatting with friends and sleeping really help me get through Omicron,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jason Lee received a message from the Centre for Health Protection informing him that his result was indeterminate in February. (Photo courtesy of Jason Lee)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Christy Chan tested positive on February 15 and negative on February 27.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christy Chan tested positive preliminarily after a few infection cases were reported in her dormitory on campus on February 15. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffering from a fever on February 14, Chan had symptoms of cough and having phlegm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was not allowed to use shared facilities such as the toilet and kitchen and she could not have shower or dinner outside her own room. Her room was also disinfected by the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter taking Panadol and vitamin C for two to three days, I felt much better. I felt terrible when I had a fever on the first day. But once the fever was gone, I felt fine,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was sent to another dormitory with a private toilet to do quarantine for seven days. \u201cThe room was like a hotel room. It had a heater, new bed sheet and pillow prepared for me. The staff provided me with toilet paper and towels,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She reported her case to the government a day later on February 16 and received a government text message on February 19, telling her to wait for their call. \u201cMy symptoms were gone when I received a call from the Centre for Health Protection. The caller asked for my address only and there were no further questions,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her seven-day quarantine, her mother brought food and daily necessities to her university and a staff delivered them to her room. \u201cMy family was pretty calm about the whole situation. They did not seem to worry,\u201d Chan says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 26, Chan received a package with a testing kit, a thermometer and a handbook of personal hygiene from the Centre for Health Protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore and more people have been infected, so it has become less of a big deal. People do not need to panic and go to the hospital if their symptoms are mild,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Christy Chan stayed in this room for quarantine for seven days. (Photo courtesy of Christy Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Meals were provided to Christy Chan when she was under quarantine on campus. (Photo courtesy of Christy Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jade Cheung tested positive on February 21 and negative on February 27.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jade Cheung did a quick test at home and tested positive on February 21 after suffering from a sore throat and a runny nose for two days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She suspected that she was infected when she bid farewell to her friend at the airport on February 19. \u201cI did not take off my mask. I still do not know how I was infected,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just took some Panadol and slept more than eight hours a day when I was sick. I felt better four days later,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 25, Cheung went to a community testing centre in the North district after her symptoms were gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe queue was short with only a few people. After two days, I received a text message saying that my result was positive. My family including my father, my mother, my sister and my brother were all negative. So they went on with their lives and went back to work,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I was in quarantine, I watched Youtube and played mobile phone games. Sometimes I did revision for my tests. It was just like every other day. A relative tested positive in early February so my family had some experience dealing with this and they were all very calm when I fell ill,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA relative has two flats so I stayed at one of them for quarantine. I had to attend online classes with my mobile data but the network was unstable. Despite the trouble, I managed to get on with my study,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her mother brought her food and other daily necessities. She also cooked meals and ordered takeaway food sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 29 February, she went to a community centre to do another test and received a message saying her result was negative two days later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are on our own now. There are too many cases and the government cannot provide support to everyone. It is important to have testing kits and Panadol at home. We need to equip ourselves and get ready for a rainy day,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jade Cheung received a message from the Centre for Health Protection informing her that her result was positive on February 26. (Photo courtesy of Jade Cheung)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mary Wong tested positive on February 17 and negative on February 26.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Wong tested positive at home on February 17 after hanging out with a friend who later also caught Omicron. Suffering from mild symptoms like cough, she stayed in her room after testing positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cleaned the toilet after using it. I had meals in my own room and my family had meals in the living room. My family asked me to wear a mask even when I was in my bedroom alone,\u201d Wong says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy sister had to move out of our bedroom so that I could quarantine myself. Though I was ill, I was quite happy that I could have some \u2018me-time\u2019,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 17, she sent a specimen to the government for a test. None in her family was infected but her family could not go to work because she tested positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy family needed a proof from the government for paid leave, so they kept asking me when I would have my test result and even asked me to do more tests. They seemed to blame everything on me and thought I was very troublesome,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was annoyed when they yelled at me for not wearing a mask. So I got into quarrels with them more often,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After taking Panadol and sleeping ten hours a day, she felt better five days later. She received a government message informing her that her result was negative on February 26. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy family still forced me to stay in my own room and wear a mask all the time even after I tested negative because they were afraid I might still be sick,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not think my health is affected by Omicron and my family just overacted. People really do not have to panic. It was like a flu to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sub-edited by Angel Woo<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Omicron survivors: “keep calm and carry on”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2175,8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2022","category-our-community","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20784,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20775\/revisions\/20784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}