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06-04-2020, 09:18 AM
On Saturday, March 6, Laura, 28, received a call. On the other end of the phone, they confirmed that his COVID-19 Coronavirus test was positive. She had caught it weeks before on a trip to Italy. Laura thus became the 'zero' patient with Coronavirus in Fuerteventura. Until then, the Island had been gaining the pulse of a virus that has spread to more than a million people worldwide.
Laura is a peninsular, but she has lived in Fuerteventura for three years. She works at one of the hotels in a tourist area. Last February, the young woman decided to take a few weeks off to visit a sister, from Erasmus in Pisa. From there, she planned to move by train to Bergamo to meet her partner, of Italian origin, and spend a few days with her in-laws.
Mid-February arrived the time for holiday. On the 17th she took the plane to Pisa. Upon landing, they took her temperature. The thermometer confirmed that Laura was healthy and with a backpack full of plans to enjoy the trip.
After spending a few days in the city of Pisa, she travelled to Bergamo. In Italy, the COVID-19 epidemic was already making headlines. However, the Italians continued to lead normal lives. The call to confinement had not yet come.
Laura explains to this newspaper, through a phone call, how cases were appearing in the Lombardy area at the time, especially in Milan, but “it was not alarming because it seemed that things were under control. There was still no law preventing people from going outside or going to work. For example, we went skiing and the slopes were full of people. There were many children, because it coincided with the week of Carnival there ”.
The first cases of the Coronavirus pandemic in Italy were confirmed on January 30, when two Chinese tourists tested positive in Rome. A week later, an Italian man repatriated from Wuhan to Italy tested positive. On February 21, 16 cases were confirmed in Lombardy. The next day, the first deaths came.
A few weeks later, Italy ended up becoming the second country in the world, after the United States, hardest hit by the COVID-19. Now it is the third with more infections, behind also Spain.
On February 25, Laura returned to Fuerteventura. She was well and ready to return to her job, and she did so. “I arrived without symptoms. I was fine, but a couple of days passed and I started to feel a dry throat and a little pain when swallowing. I was like this for two or three days, ”she says.
Fever and cough, the most common symptoms of COVID-19, had not appeared. Luck made those days that Laura had to do her work in one of the hotel offices, in front of the computer and with hardly any contact with colleagues and clients.
The symptoms continued without going any further. On March 2, Laura went to the health centre for a blood test that she had planned for a long time. There, she found a building with posters on the walls that put her on notice. In them, it was recommended that, if you had been in risk areas such as China and Italy and felt symptoms, you should report it to the health personnel and quarantine.
The next day, at night, Laura had a fever spike. She took a paracetamol and got it down. In the morning, the thermometer again exceeded 38 degrees. She called the hotel and decided to stay home. The shadow of the COVID-19 began to haunt her head. It was, then, when she decided to call 112 to come to do the test and thus rule out that she could be infected.
Laura has good words for the Canary Health Service and the way in which they acted on those days. "The doctor, who contacted me, took the address to bring me food because I was right at home and could not leave," she says. When they came to collect the sample, the health workers presented themselves with a purchase to avoid Laura having to go to the supermarket.
During those days, Laura had a slight fever, but not a cough. She never had it. Yes the loss of smell. Before the studies linking this symptom to the Coronavirus came out, the young woman realized that she was unable to smell. She talks about how when she cooked she had to get very close to the food because "it didn't smell, she put on perfumes and she didn't smell them, but at that time she didn't associate it with that."
Two days after collecting the sample, she was told that the test was inconclusive and that a second test had to be done. It was Friday, the 5th. The young woman was already without symptoms.
On Saturday the final result arrived, it was positive. Laura became the first case of Coronavirus in Fuerteventura. A few hours later, the press was reported and the Island was holding its breath. The fear of new cases worried everyone.
Laura was not afraid of illness. She is young, without previous pathologies and, if she followed the medical recommendations, nothing could go wrong. Yes fear and remorse of having infected someone.
She had to communicate the results to her co-workers. Her closest people were quarantined, but luckily they were all negative. Also her partner, who changed address. "What worried me the most was to tell my colleagues that, because of me, they couldn't live a normal life and had to stay home," she says.
Days later, all Spaniards stopped living normal lives. They learned to call the virus by its first and last name and started up their wits to see who came up with the most original meme with which to get a smile in times of confinement. The applause came to the heroes on the balconies and the saucepans for those who did not measure up. Also the yearnings of an entire country to see the curve of contagion and deaths flatten.
Laura lived the quarantine, isolated at home, and listening to how the cases of COVID-19 soared throughout Spain; how the death curve did not flatten; how the World Health Organization announced the pandemic and how new positives were appearing in Fuerteventura. Two weeks after the first results, two tests confirmed that the young woman was cured.
The epidemiological discharge arrived and, soon after, the medical discharge. The news made its way to the press on March 19. That day all the majoreros celebrated Laura's discharge from their homes.
She wants to tell her story to call for calm, send a message of optimism and, above all, to encourage people to continue to respect the rules and continue to stay at home.
“Now what is in our hands is to stay at home. We don't have to be selfish and think about ourselves. Above all, we must bear in mind that, through our fault, someone very old or with health problems can get it ”.
After the illness, she had to live another quarantine. The same that the rest of the Spanish have while waiting for new confinement orders or the announcement that the COVID-19 war has been won.
Luckily, her house has a terrace from which to enjoy the sun every day. Take advantage of the 20 minutes you dedicate to the week to go to the supermarket to “breathe the air of Fuerteventura”.
The message that comes out of all this is that "prevention is better than cure". Before saying goodbye, she insists that "the most important thing is to take care of others and think more about them than about us." End the call with joy. The sun on your terrace awaits you.
Courtesy of Diario de Fuerteventura.
Laura is a peninsular, but she has lived in Fuerteventura for three years. She works at one of the hotels in a tourist area. Last February, the young woman decided to take a few weeks off to visit a sister, from Erasmus in Pisa. From there, she planned to move by train to Bergamo to meet her partner, of Italian origin, and spend a few days with her in-laws.
Mid-February arrived the time for holiday. On the 17th she took the plane to Pisa. Upon landing, they took her temperature. The thermometer confirmed that Laura was healthy and with a backpack full of plans to enjoy the trip.
After spending a few days in the city of Pisa, she travelled to Bergamo. In Italy, the COVID-19 epidemic was already making headlines. However, the Italians continued to lead normal lives. The call to confinement had not yet come.
Laura explains to this newspaper, through a phone call, how cases were appearing in the Lombardy area at the time, especially in Milan, but “it was not alarming because it seemed that things were under control. There was still no law preventing people from going outside or going to work. For example, we went skiing and the slopes were full of people. There were many children, because it coincided with the week of Carnival there ”.
The first cases of the Coronavirus pandemic in Italy were confirmed on January 30, when two Chinese tourists tested positive in Rome. A week later, an Italian man repatriated from Wuhan to Italy tested positive. On February 21, 16 cases were confirmed in Lombardy. The next day, the first deaths came.
A few weeks later, Italy ended up becoming the second country in the world, after the United States, hardest hit by the COVID-19. Now it is the third with more infections, behind also Spain.
On February 25, Laura returned to Fuerteventura. She was well and ready to return to her job, and she did so. “I arrived without symptoms. I was fine, but a couple of days passed and I started to feel a dry throat and a little pain when swallowing. I was like this for two or three days, ”she says.
Fever and cough, the most common symptoms of COVID-19, had not appeared. Luck made those days that Laura had to do her work in one of the hotel offices, in front of the computer and with hardly any contact with colleagues and clients.
The symptoms continued without going any further. On March 2, Laura went to the health centre for a blood test that she had planned for a long time. There, she found a building with posters on the walls that put her on notice. In them, it was recommended that, if you had been in risk areas such as China and Italy and felt symptoms, you should report it to the health personnel and quarantine.
The next day, at night, Laura had a fever spike. She took a paracetamol and got it down. In the morning, the thermometer again exceeded 38 degrees. She called the hotel and decided to stay home. The shadow of the COVID-19 began to haunt her head. It was, then, when she decided to call 112 to come to do the test and thus rule out that she could be infected.
Laura has good words for the Canary Health Service and the way in which they acted on those days. "The doctor, who contacted me, took the address to bring me food because I was right at home and could not leave," she says. When they came to collect the sample, the health workers presented themselves with a purchase to avoid Laura having to go to the supermarket.
During those days, Laura had a slight fever, but not a cough. She never had it. Yes the loss of smell. Before the studies linking this symptom to the Coronavirus came out, the young woman realized that she was unable to smell. She talks about how when she cooked she had to get very close to the food because "it didn't smell, she put on perfumes and she didn't smell them, but at that time she didn't associate it with that."
Testing positive
Two days after collecting the sample, she was told that the test was inconclusive and that a second test had to be done. It was Friday, the 5th. The young woman was already without symptoms.
On Saturday the final result arrived, it was positive. Laura became the first case of Coronavirus in Fuerteventura. A few hours later, the press was reported and the Island was holding its breath. The fear of new cases worried everyone.
Laura was not afraid of illness. She is young, without previous pathologies and, if she followed the medical recommendations, nothing could go wrong. Yes fear and remorse of having infected someone.
She had to communicate the results to her co-workers. Her closest people were quarantined, but luckily they were all negative. Also her partner, who changed address. "What worried me the most was to tell my colleagues that, because of me, they couldn't live a normal life and had to stay home," she says.
Days later, all Spaniards stopped living normal lives. They learned to call the virus by its first and last name and started up their wits to see who came up with the most original meme with which to get a smile in times of confinement. The applause came to the heroes on the balconies and the saucepans for those who did not measure up. Also the yearnings of an entire country to see the curve of contagion and deaths flatten.
Laura lived the quarantine, isolated at home, and listening to how the cases of COVID-19 soared throughout Spain; how the death curve did not flatten; how the World Health Organization announced the pandemic and how new positives were appearing in Fuerteventura. Two weeks after the first results, two tests confirmed that the young woman was cured.
The epidemiological discharge arrived and, soon after, the medical discharge. The news made its way to the press on March 19. That day all the majoreros celebrated Laura's discharge from their homes.
She wants to tell her story to call for calm, send a message of optimism and, above all, to encourage people to continue to respect the rules and continue to stay at home.
“Now what is in our hands is to stay at home. We don't have to be selfish and think about ourselves. Above all, we must bear in mind that, through our fault, someone very old or with health problems can get it ”.
After the illness, she had to live another quarantine. The same that the rest of the Spanish have while waiting for new confinement orders or the announcement that the COVID-19 war has been won.
Luckily, her house has a terrace from which to enjoy the sun every day. Take advantage of the 20 minutes you dedicate to the week to go to the supermarket to “breathe the air of Fuerteventura”.
The message that comes out of all this is that "prevention is better than cure". Before saying goodbye, she insists that "the most important thing is to take care of others and think more about them than about us." End the call with joy. The sun on your terrace awaits you.
Courtesy of Diario de Fuerteventura.
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Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura
