“It started off with mild flu-like symptoms. A little itchy throat, sore throat, and then I had headache, all which started off as mild but as the days went by, the symptoms became more severe and the fever got hotter and then I started suffering from shortness of breath,” were the words of 29-year-old Luwana Allicock, who spent two weeks in a special care unit at the Lethem Regional Hospital due to the severity of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) symptoms that she experienced.
Allicock, who is asthmatic, told Stabroek News on Tuesday that she was the first person who was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in the indigenous community of Aranaputa in the North Rupununi district of Region 9. Allicock and her husband, Gormain, tested positive for the disease in the 3rd week of July while their two children tested positive a couple of days later.
She said that she believes that she contracted the disease from a popular restaurant and bar in the community, but stressed that she did not contract the disease from a customer but rather, a co-worker who had contracted it from a supermarket close by, where the restaurant staff would go to buy food supplies and other necessary items.
For days or even weeks before she fell ill, she recalled that staff of the supermarket were displaying flu-like symptoms. “Before I became ill they had somebody there [the supermarket] having flu symptoms and everybody took it for granted. They didn’t think that it was COVID the person was affected with,” she said. She went on to reveal that her colleague contracted what they thought was the flu and after her colleague’s symptoms started to go away, she herself became ill.
According to Allicock, the mild symptoms lasted for seven days after which the severity of those symptoms increased until she began suffering from shortness of breath. “I was afraid to be honest because I never had something like that bad. I’m asthmatic but it never really affected me that much because when you suffer from asthma, you would have shortness of breath one or two times but it would go away when you used your asthma pump and this was nothing like that,” she recalled.
Out of everyone who tested positive for the disease in her family, Allicock said she was the only one who suffered from severe symptoms of the disease. “I was the one that got really sick. I took in and because of me, because I had all the symptoms, I ended up in the hospital, I couldn’t breathe, I had to go on a oxygen mask so all my symptoms led them to suspect that I was infected with the disease and so they arranged to take samples from us,” she said.
Allicock added that she was taken to the Annai Health Centre and it was there that doctors took samples from her, her husband and two of her colleagues. A couple of days later they were told that they all were infected with COVID-19.
However, Allicock admitted that her results did not surprise her because she suspected that she had the disease, stressing that “It was like nothing I have ever felt.” She added that when the pandemic started, she had read up on the disease and made herself familiar with the signs and symptoms of the disease and took whatever precautions necessary.
As a result of her suspicion, she said when her children visited her at her workplace, where she was residing at that time, she sent them back home for fear that they would contract it from her.
Despite her taking the necessary steps, she added, her two children, ages six and eight contracted the disease and a few days after she and her husband were transported to an isolation facility in Lethem, they were brought there also. She said that due to the severity of her symptoms, she was separated from her husband upon arrival and placed in a special-care ward of the hospital, where she remained for the next two weeks. It was only after the symptoms started to ease up, she said, that she was allowed to be with the rest of her family.
She added that it was very difficult being away from her family and at some point her symptoms and the isolation affected her mental health. While her main concern was for her children, she sometimes thought about whether it was “her time” and this resulted in some form of depression. However, she tried not to think about it but at some points when she couldn’t bear the pain, the thought would sneak up on her.
Regardless, she was very happy when the symptoms started to ease and was even more so when she was reunited with her family, who were staying in a room together in another isolation facility. She added that she was happy that her children only showed mild symptoms and seemed ‘ok’ while in isolation. Her husband, had mild symptoms of the disease as well. He told Stabroek News that he experienced headache, fever, and loss of taste and smell.
Very difficult
After being discharged from the special care unit, Allicock said she spent several days in isolation with her family before being discharged officially. She revealed that being in isolation was very difficult for the children. “They’re kids, they’re not accustom to being in a room or in a home locked up all day. The only thing that had them up was their [electronic] tablets and they [would] go and play games to keep them occupied. I tried to keep them busy with their books, I read to them and made them draw but in the end it was very frustrating,” she said.
After the additional days were up, they were discharged from the facility together. She mentioned that when she was tested for the second time, her results returned positive, but despite this she was discharged a few days later and the family was placed in home quarantine.
The family was discharged on August 17.
Presently, according to Allicock, her family is doing fine with the exception of her and her daughter. She says, she still suffers from a cough now and again but she is not sure if this is a result of her asthma although the doctors did tell her that it would take a while before she fully recuperates because of the asthma.
She added that her daughter still gets a fever but this could be attributed to another disease. Because of the home quarantine, they are not yet allowed to leave their home but she called a doctor and told her about what is happening.
“Other than that everyone is ok,” she assured.
In addition to her immediate family testing positive for the disease, Allicock disclosed that her mother, sister and a nephew also tested positive for the disease. Unfortunately, as a result of her sister contracting the disease, she was unable to complete her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
“We’re still on home quarantine even though we were cleared but still we don’t go and everybody knows that we’re positive and the normal things that we don’t do … they feel it. My mom, sister, nephew everybody got infected and my sister had to write CXC this year and she didn’t get to do it and we found out that she was positive. It was really tough. Because she didn’t get to finish her exams. We had a lot to face here,” she said. Her husband added that they faced a lot of discrimination when community members learned that they had tested positive. Nobody wanted to assist them and everyone avoided them. To date, he said, they are still being discriminated against.
Meanwhile, Allicock said she will not be returning to work for the rest of the year. “I’m scared because I don’t want to get re-infected. I know if I’m going to be re-infected, it’s not going to be nice due to my condition so I’m not going back to work for the rest of the year, and it’s also for the safety of my kids,” she declared, adding that being in quarantine was something new for everyone and it was “very, very difficult” but they coped. However, it is not something that she would want to go through again.
