Filipino-Australian family of 5 tested COVID positive

A Filipino-Australian living in the western suburbs is now at home and on the road to recovery after being hospitalised when she contracted COVID-19. Despite going back to her normal grind, she said she feels more fatigued post-COVID. Her 75 year old mother who is visiting Australia was also hospitalised. Her Australian husband and two children were also tested positive.

The Philippine Times will not provide her name and suburb as per her request.

She shares her story and warns others who do not take this COVID crisis seriously:

I was a postive case for corona. I wasn’t going to tell many people but I am just so frustrated with seeing people on my (Facebook) timeline/feed not taking this seriously.

I’m going to be honest, yes I went out when restrictions were eased, but only twice. The rest of the time I was at home or at work.

I don’t know how I got it.

I always washed my hands, tried to keep my distance as much as possible from everyone and yet I still got it.

No one I know understands the pain and worry and dread I felt when I got the call saying that I was positive. I had worked all day during the days I was considered infectious and my workmates could have been infected. I was so worried because that’s what being a decent human being is! It’s about caring for others besides myself, it’s about having social responsibility.

Unfortunately I had given it to my entire family.

I had quarantined late, I was already infectious by the time I got my swab. It really just pained my heart.

The arguments against the virus, to me are reckless and dangerous thinking. Yes it doesn’t have a high mortality rate, and for the most part, symptoms may only be mild.

I wasn’t so bad but at the beginning, I was crying to sleep because of the pain in my chest. I was coughing so much I just wanted to lie down all the time because every time I had to sit up, my back and chest would hurt from the effort.

But laying down made me cough more so that wasn’t much of an option. It was painful to do much at all – I couldn’t taste or smell – and I was sleeping less and less because I would be coughing more and more in the middle of the night.

I had a severe fever that hit 40 degrees which barely ever went down. This led to me having chills and also feverish hot back and forth, which also caused me to sleep less because I was very uncomfortable. I couldn’t take full breaths of air without coughing badly.

But you know what? Among those in my family, I was the lucky one. Two of my other family members were more severe cases. They were hospitalised.

So you need to think to yourself: ‘Are you really going to take that risk?’ ‘Are you willing to let your 4 year old relative cough and cry in pain?’ ‘Are you willing to let your grandmother end up in hospital?’

Yes, you may have beaten the virus yourself and there are many stories where people are feeling fine, but if you’re positive are you going to take the risk that someone you love and care for will be infected? No one knows what would happen, this virus doesn’t discriminate.

Please, stay home when you can. Please understand that this lockdown isn’t only about protecting yourself, but others as well. Our nurses and doctors, they’re getting overwhelmed. They’re working so hard, you can’t even imagine how they must feel working in that environment. Please be properly informed, people are researching and trying to understand it.

I get it, this lockdown sucks. It really sucks.

I can’t see my friends. I can’t eat out when I want to. I’m not going to lie there were times my mental health really wasn’t that great during my isolation. But at the end of the day, I’m doing something for my community by staying home when I need to be. It’s a really hard time for everyone, but if we pull through during this lockdown properly we will be triumphant!

If you see the graphs you can see that there is a downward trend.

Please, for the sake of everyone around you who cannot be protected, stay inside!

It’ll be time again to be with your family, friends and loved ones.

I miss my company too, but I’ll miss them more if this continues because you aren’t listening and looking at the stats. Stay updated and don’t believe in social media posts with bad edits that induce fear into you. There’s a reason people get discredited in research – it’s simply not true.