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A south Kaipara mother who tested positive for Covid-19 with no links to other cases in Northland, has shared her story in the hope that it might help others.
She says dealing with bureaucratic inquiries into her family’s personal affairs were actually more of a headache than the disease itself.
She adds that the fact she was double vaccinated and had been careful about mask wearing and QR scanning helped give her peace of mind when she discovered that she had the disease.
The mother, 34, who prefers not to be named to protect her children, appears to have contracted the virus after picking up her 11-year-old daughter, who had been visiting her father in Auckland.
The girl’s grandfather dropped the girl off at the northern checkpoint on State Highway 1 on October 18, where she was met by her mother. The grandfather and mother stayed in their respective cars and had no contact.
The following day, the daughter complained of a headache, which the mother successfully treated with Panadol.
A day or so later, the woman experienced a runny nose, which she thought was hay fever. By Sunday of Labour Weekend, she still thought it was hay fever but decided to get a Covid test to be sure.
Meanwhile, her partner took her children on an outing to Whangarei to visit an indoor trampoline park.
The woman was advised the closest available testing site was in Warkworth and awaited a text message that would allow her to cross the border to get the test, but the text message never came. When she phoned to find out why, she was told it was too late to get a test that day.
The woman and her partner, who was now complaining of a mild cold, were finally able to get a test in Wellsford on Tuesday, October 26.
On Thursday, the couple were advised by their GP that they had tested positive. The woman immediately began phoning her close contacts to warn them and stayed at home awaiting a call from health officials.
But the call never came. The woman says she called Healthline and discovered they had been incorrectly classified as an Auckland case.
She was told she would be reclassified as a Northland case and to expect a call from the Northland District Health Board (DHB). Again, she heard nothing, so contacted the Northland DHB herself.
The woman says once the Northland DHB became involved, they were “fantastic”. They began contact tracing and sent a mobile testing unit around to check on the couple’s children. Both turned out to be positive for Covid-19.
The DHB allowed the family to self-isolate at home and organised to do their shopping and deliver their groceries.
“They have gone above and beyond to make sure we have everything we need,” the woman says.
She says neighbours and community organisations, who heard about their plight through friends, have also been supportive.
One neighbour regularly checks if they need anything extra from the supermarket, and they have not felt the need for any additional community support.
The woman says the hardest part has been negotiating the bureaucratic processes – such as following up on phone calls that were not returned – also the DHB “picking apart every single part of your life”.
Another tough challenge was seeing people on local community Facebook pages sounding the alarm that local people had tested positive.
She says compared to this, the disease itself has been easy to cope with, with each member of the family only registering the mildest of symptoms.
“There’s a lot of fear that if you catch it you are going to be really, really sick, but that is not necessarily the case,” she says.
She says so far none of the people who have been tested after visiting locations of interest generated by the family have returned a positive test result. She says this is a relief and puts it down to the extensive precautions practiced by her family
“It’s looking like the fact that I’ve been double vaccinated has stopped me spreading it and the fact that even my daughter wears a mask, even though she is not obliged to, has stopped her spreading it too.”
