For Krisinda Merhi, recovering from Covid while isolating in her bedroom felt like “exhausting nothingness”.
“You’re tired from doing nothing, because you both can’t and don’t have the energy to,” she says.
The 25-year-old Sydneysider contracted Covid after a trip to Melbourne in November. It started with “slight congestion and a persistent cough”. At first she thought it was “just allergies”, and a negative result from a precautionary rapid antigen test supported this.
It was following a dinner, where she couldn’t taste anything, that Merhi began to panic.
“I got a Covid test the next morning.”
Later that afternoon, while watching television with her family, the PCR test came back positive.
“We all went into crisis mode,” she says.
Merhi instantly relocated to her bedroom, where she stayed isolated for a week. Luckily, her family of five, who isolated inside the home as close contacts, all remained negative.
As daily Covid numbers surpass 12,000 in New South Wales, and “worst case” Covid modelling suggests 200,000 cases a day nationwide by late January, Prof Jayashra Kulkarni says isolation inside the home as either a Covid-positive person or close contact is becoming “a common experience now”.
Kulkarni is a professor of psychiatry from Monash University, and has isolated in her home as a close contact of a Covid-positive family member. She says “it is helpful to know you are not alone”.
“Once a family member is detected to be positive, the immediate response is to be anxious,” she says. But Kulkarni reminds us that “human beings are designed to cope with crises”.
“The news can hit you like a lightning bolt,” she says, describing “unsettling” feelings of upheaval and disappointment. “Don’t be afraid to have that emotional reaction. It will pass.
“Then, you will regroup and reimagine what you need to do to deal with what is in front of you.”
Here’s what to do if you test positive and need to isolate.
The environment
Kulkarni says the first consideration should be “dealing with infection control” inside the home.
She recommends isolating the Covid-positive individual to their own area, like a bedroom. She also urges they use “their own bathroom facility, if you can”.
If that isn’t possible, Kulkarni says, “you need to rethink” how to protect the “space, air and things” touched by the Covid-positive person.
“Most people can isolate in a bedroom, and negotiate times for the shared bathroom.”
As the virus is aerosol-borne, Kulkarni says wearing masks inside your house, “as bizarre as it sounds”, is critical protection. She suggests “double masking” with surgical masks if there is no access to medical-grade N95 masks.
In common spaces, “ventilation with outside air” is important. “So keep the windows open.”
Wearing disposable gloves while touching shared surfaces “is going to be really important”. As will be designating plates, cups, knives and forks to household members.
Although “we don’t know how much of Omicron is transmitted through contact”, Kulkarni says, “you just need to keep thinking about where there is infectious possibility.
“So if you’re serving food, leave it outside the door of the isolation room. When you go to collect it, pick it up with disposable gloves.”
Merhi had her own washing basket, tub of used utensils and trash bag of disposables in her room.
“I cleaned it all after my isolation, so no one was coming into contact with my germs.”
The supplies
Kulkarni’s shopping list for a week of Covid isolation inside the home includes disposable gloves, surgical masks, disinfectant wipes and “good old-fashioned boiling water” for washing.
“These may be extreme, because we are not sure about transmission through surfaces with Omicron yet,” Kulkarni says. “But we can borrow worries from other variants.”
Merhi suggests adding Berocca, “a lot of water” and “a vitamin regimen” including vitamin C, zinc, B12 and fish oil to the list. She also found “maintaining a diet of things rich in nutrients like fruits and vegetables” important.
She recalls “feeling really exhausted, and not knowing why you’re exhausted”.
“So take hot showers, drink lots of tea, and get lots of rest.”
Dr Jenny H Martin, a practising physician and clinical pharmacologist of the University of Newcastle, says “staying well hydrated” is helpful to manage symptoms and discomfort. “People find it difficult to drink water, so Hydralyte is helpful.”
Martin, who has also previously isolated in her home as a close contact with a Covid-positive family member, says managing Covid in a home setting “is difficult with medicine”. Similar to supporting someone through a viral illness, she suggests use of ibuprofen and anti-inflammatory medicines.
Kulkarni says organising the “bits and pieces” of receiving grocery deliveries, or care-packages dropped off by friends, is another consideration. She says to ensure deliveries are “contactless” by having them dropped off at a driveway or doorstep.
“After the person is gone, you can pick it up.”
Watching physical health
Symptoms in a Covid-positive person “are going to be different for different people”, Kulkarni says.
“For an average, healthy person, the symptoms of the Omicron variant seem to present like a cold or flu,” Kulkarni says, describing sore throats, a blocked nose, muscle aches, tiredness and fevers.
In a person with underlying, compromising health conditions, however, symptoms may be more severe.
Martin says if a Covid-positive person has “gone a day” without keeping fluids down, “they may need to go to the hospital and get fluids through a drip”. Covid-positive people who are vomiting, or experiencing severe fevers that cause hallucinations or cannot be managed at home, “may also need to go to hospital”.
Kulkarni also suggests close contacts who may share the home with a Covid-positive person “keep an eye on transmission” with rapid antigen tests – “for peace of mind”.
Remembering mental health
“A person in isolation can feel totally cut off,” Kulkarni says. “The cleanliness factor gets hyped up, and it needs to be. But looking after mental health is important.”
She says keeping up communication while in isolation is “really critical”.
To feel connected to people while in isolation, Merhi video called with friends and watched movies over the phone with her partner. She also says she was “lucky” to have a balcony.
“It made it a lot easier to self isolate. I could actually get fresh air. It was easier on my sanity.”
Martin suggests making a list of friends and family to get in touch with, and “working through that list of people each day”.
“Some people do yoga, others make at-home gyms with milk bottles filled with water,” she says. “The isolation seems like the hardest thing – just sitting in your room, counting down the hours.
“So it doesn’t really matter, you just have to be engaging in something.”
The aftermath
After the infectious period has ended, “do not disturb the room or bathroom for a day”, Martin says.
“Let it settle. Then wear a mask and gloves, and clean all surfaces with disinfectant.
“Have the person infected care for their own space,” she says. This includes stripping and washing bed sheets, any clothes worn, and vacuuming.
Martin says to “dispose of the vacuum bag and don’t let it sit around”.
She also suggests opening windows and doors on two sides of the house, and letting the airflow circulate while people in the household are outside.
Kulkarni says that, amid a time of “consideration and changes”, it is important to “keep abreast” of health rules in your state.
“We are in some ways in a middle ground,” she says. “Omicron appears to be a milder illness, particularly in those vaccinated. That is encouraging.”
At the same time, however, people remain “concerned”. “Particularly when you see stories from overseas of long Covid, and events need to be cancelled.”
“Critical” to balancing this, she says, is getting “focused and practical” about a Covid positive result, and being prepared for isolation.
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