17.6 C
Byron Shire
March 29, 2024

Personal tales of COVID-19

Latest News

Retired local professor launches book on grief

A leading international thinker and researcher in the development of innovative sport coaching and physical education teaching has returned home to Byron Bay and is launching his first non-academic book, 'Grief and Growth', on April 4 at The Book Room in Byron. 

Other News

Cinema: Wicked Little Letters

Based on a true scandal that stunned 1920s England, Wicked Little Letters centres on neighbours Edith Swan and Rose Gooding in the seaside town of Littlehampton.

Carrying and passing the torch

If I say the words ‘US Forces give the nod’, I can pretty much guarantee that you will hear the unmistakable voice of Peter Garrett ringing in your ears. Your head may even start to bob up and down a bit. 

Bay FM community radio celebrates digital upgrade

Volunteers from Byron and across the Northern Rivers celebrated nearly $100,000 worth of new studio equipment at Bay FM Community Radio station on the weekend.

Making Lismore Showground accessible to everyone

The Lismore Showground isn’t just a critical local community asset that plays host to a number of major events each year, but has also been used as an evacuation centre during past natural disasters in the region. 

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Why Being Seen is Beautiful

There is something profound about being seen. Being accepted and loved for exactly who you are. It’s life changing. It’s simple. It’s transformative. But some people don’t get to experience this. Nearly half of transgender Australians have attempted suicide.That data tells the very real impact of discrimination, stigma and lack of access to gender-affirming surgery. I write this as a woman who was born a woman, who identifies as a woman. I’ll admit, that even in that gender role, that fits within the societal binary, I’ve had my own challenges.

How the coral crisis affects other marine wildlife

Marine heatwaves are killing coral and denuding reefs of their colourful beauty – but in a world where everything is food for something else, these heatwaves also pose a major threat to biodiversity.

On Monday, the Cavvanbah COVID testing station in Byron closed to any more people in the queue an hour after it opened. A 70-something Mullum great-grandmother then sat in the rain outside the Byron Hospital testing station for three hours. Photo supplied.

It’s often said that Byron is a bubble – a hippie, influencer, surfer, ‘everything is chill’ bubble.

During most of 2021, we were in a bubble where the pandemic only touched us on the periphery.

It was visitors who would raise our case numbers to single-digit figures – a pair of nurses from Queensland at Easter, a man and his two children in August – but we went into lockdown and that nipped it in the bud. 

Now the Byron area is a different bubble.

Since we have become ‘free’ the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Northern NSW Local Health District has risen rapidly, and the Byron area has, for some time, led in cases recorded. 

Every day we are now climbing into the hundreds of new cases. 

As of January 3, www.nnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au reported that there were 485 cases in total for the region, with Byron at 156, followed by Tweed with 136. That’s 3,652 cases in the four weeks to January 3 in northern NSW.

Katie from Ocean Shores was at a party on December 9. She felt sick and had a test on the 12th, and got a positive result on the 13th.

She told The Echo, ‘I did two rapid tests, and they came up negative’.

‘And then I did another one. And it came up with a really, really faint line for positive. I had symptoms at that time so I got the PCR test and a positive result within 24 hours’.

‘I started off having headaches and then a runny nose like hay fever. Then I had a little cough and then started getting really sore – my bones and joints were aching as I’ve never felt before. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep.’

Katie’s symptoms are not uncommon. Mick from Mullum, Susannah visiting her parents in Lismore, and Iris from Sydney have pretty much all experienced the same path, though the severity and recovery has differed. All of these people are double vaccinated.

Health dept response

What didn’t vary much was the response from the government and health authorities. Katie got her result in the afternoon.

‘Then I got a phone call from close contact people from the government asking me all the questions of like, where I’d been, who’s been around the house. I had gone to my child’s preschool art show. So I had to email them.’

Katie says she was told to just take some Panadol and Nurofen and she’d be fine.

‘In the post-contact, the lady said I’d have a nurse calling me and there should be a COVID-19 package dropped off at my house the next day. It never arrived’. 

In Sydney things are much worse. Iris is a 65-year-old woman who lives with her partner and young adult son. The couple had to wait several days only, to get a negative result, and their son who had the exact same symptoms, got a positive result more than a week after he was tested.

‘We were all sick, we took (rapid antigen tests) RATs and they came up positive. To receive a negative PCR while we were so sick was actually very upsetting.’

Susannah also from Sydney felt completely healthy, but did a rapid antigen test the day before, and the day of, her flight to visit her parents in Lismore, just to be cautious. ‘It wasn’t until I was actually on the flight up that I started to develop symptoms.’

Susannah says that after her positive PCR test, she got a couple of text messages from NSW Health that linked to two surveys she needed to complete.

‘Other than that, there wasn’t any additional contact from them, nor any comprehensive info or instructions.’

Mick says that his positive PCR result got him text messages from NSW Health asking about his vax status, age, gender, and whether he was ATSI and a fact sheet.

Mick feels he got an adequate response from health authorities. ‘Under the circumstances, yes. If my symptoms had been more serious, I don’t know how things would have played out, but I hope and assume they have relevant processes in place in those cases.’

The ping you don’t want

None of the group said they got a ping from NSW Health on their phone to alert them they were a contact, either close or casual.

Katie was told by a friend that the party that she had been at had hosted a positive case, Susannah said that as she lives in Sydney she was aware case numbers were rising rapidly. She got two negative RATs before she left for Lismore. ‘My parents are in their late 70s and it was my worst nightmare to bring COVID up to them!’

Mick’s close contact was the family he went to visit for Christmas. ‘Given my mum’s age everyone involved checked they were negative via RAT before going. I’d also had a negative PCR a couple of days earlier following a possible contact at work the previous week. We did a RAT before driving to Sydney and another on mums balcony when we arrived just to make doubly sure. So I was three times negative by then! My siblings and relevant partners – including my heavily pregnant sister-in-law, also all returned negative RATs. All, apart from my two-year-old nephew, were double vaxxed.’

My sister got sick Boxing Day morning with what we assumed was a cold. She got worse over Boxing Day. My brother and his wife (the pregnant one) left Boxing Day but my sister-in-law was also not feeling great by the time they got home and did another RAT on the morning of the 27th. This one came back positive.

‘On that same morning, we were meant to go to Sydney to see other family including my dad in his late 70s and his wife. Given that positive RAT and my sick sister, we decided that wasn’t wise and decided to drive home to Mullum instead.

‘By the time we got home all three of us – my partner and my adult daughter – were all starting to feel under the weather too. My brother let us know he had also returned a positive RAT so the next morning (28th) we got up early and went to the Cavvanbah centre drive-thru. 

Iris said she had previously pings from NSW Health. ‘Those were just one’s saying ‘monitor for symptoms’.

How did it happen

All but one of the group are pretty sure they know where and from whom they got infected. Susannah said she couldn’t be sure. ‘I’d had a few COVID alert notifications from Service NSW check-ins in the week prior to my symptoms developing (i.e. at Woolworths and a couple of other shops I’d visited).

‘All of my work Christmas parties had been cancelled, so the only other thing I could possibly pinpoint is a small gathering I attended about four days before my symptoms developed.’

Mick is very sure it was his sister, Iris says her son git ill before she did and Katie got it from a party in Byron.

All of the group knew from what they had heard in the media that they probably had COVID before the positive result came through.

Did you suspect you had COVID before you had a test?

Susannah says she suspected she was positive before it was confirmed via a test because she started feeling ill quite suddenly and the symptoms seemed consistent with COVID. ‘I did two rapid antigen tests the day after my symptoms developed. Both were positive, so I went for a PCR test immediately. Those results took 68 hours to come back, so it was a pretty nerve wracking wait to receive the confirmation.

Iris said yes and no. ‘It has felt very like any other flu or cold and I never had a sore throat, so it didn’t feel like a big new “COVID” illness. On the other hand, logic said it had to be.’

Katie was the only one of the group who felt ill enough to have to go to hospital. ‘My symptoms were quite severe. I was pretty out of it. I couldn’t really do much, I couldn’t taste, I couldn’t smell anything – I was hardly really eating – only enough because I had to eat to take like some codeine. I was drinking heaps and heaps of water.

‘I did feel at one point that I needed to call triple zero and I did ring the hotline and I got through. My headache was so severe I couldn’t properly see. Nothing was working  – not the Panadol, not the Nurofen, I was just so sore. I was crying and the nurse on the hotline said, “I think you should call an ambulance”. I thought “Oh my God, that’s really dramatic for freaking massive headache”.’

I didn’t want to be that drama queen, I mean, I was feeling like death. I wanted that help. I needed someone to just go “you’re going to be ok”. And it was my partner who in the end did that. He got me an ice pack and I just fell asleep with my ice pack on my head. And it really, really helped.

The road to recovery can be long and winding

Susannah says she has had colds that were much worse, and Iris says hers was like a mild flu, or a heavy cold, but her family didn’t get cold symptoms at all – she is recovering steadily.

Mick and his family are doing well.

‘We’ve pretty much recovered now, other than a lingering cough and not quite 100 per cent full energy. It felt like a rough flu at its worst, never anywhere near bad enough to consider medical attention (thank you vax)’.

Katie says she is concerned about getting it again.

‘After almost four weeks I still have some symptoms – coughing and my headaches are really bad. I mowed the lawns the other day and then I got this real gnarly cough. Like, really nasty – then I had to sleep for the rest of the day. So yeah, I think I’ve got a long COVID.’

 


 

Recent stories, information and updates regarding COVID-19

Fresh air federal funds for Northern Rivers schools in need

Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week.

1

COVID-19 pandemic has cut life expectancy globally

COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal.

1

COVID-19 update for New South Wales

Let’s not forget that Covid-19 is still a big issue in our community with 31,935 cases reported across Australia in the last week – an average of 4,562 cases per day.

9

Five graphs you need to see before the Global Carbon Budget...

The Global Carbon Budget is about to be refreshed, giving the world a critical insight into how efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are (or are not) progressing.

2

Public transport mask mandate to end

Masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport from tomorrow, Wednesday 21 September.

1

NSW Police: be COVID-vigilant at Splendour in the Grass

SW Police are urging festival-goers at this weekend’s music festival to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner, whilst also being aware of COVID-Safety measures.

2

COVID-19 update for the NNSWLHD – May 23

The Northern NSW Local Health District reports that to 4pm yesterday, Sunday May 22, there were 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with one of these in ICU.

0

AEC says COVID voters can phone from home

The AEC says that voters who have recently tested positive for COVID-19 will be able to phone in their vote in the federal election.

3

COVID-19 update: May 16

The Northern NSW Local Health District says that to 4pm yesterday, 15 May, 384 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the District, including 82 positive PCR tests and 302 positive rapid antigen tests.

0

It’s National Volunteer Week

Volunteering Australia says volleys are the backbone of the country in times of crisis and emergency.

1


Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

2 COMMENTS

  1. It would help public safety if the article had identified who was and who was not vaxxed. And how many vaxxes. It would encourage the unvaxxed to get jabbed.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Resilient Lismore’s ‘Repair to Return’ funding

On the eve of the second anniversary of the second devastating flood in 2022, Resilient Lismore has welcomed the finalisation of its funding deed with the NSW Reconstruction Authority, which will enable the continuation of its ‘Repair to Return’ program.

Editorial – Joyous propaganda! 

The NSW Labor government marked its one year in office this week with a jubilant statement of achievements issued from Macquarie Street HQ.

Man charged over domestic violence and pursuit offences – Tweed Heads

A man has been charged following a pursuit near Tweed Heads on Monday.

Where should affordable housing go in Tweed Shire?

Should affordable and social housing in the Tweed Shire be tucked away in a few discreet corners? Perhaps it should be on the block next to where you live?