Covid strikes

 "The vaccine works! I was the only person who had a booster and I managed to avoid Covid" were the words of proclamation. That is, until last week. They said it starts with a sore throat, and a spicy cough. Thursday, my throats starts to become scratchy. Friday I wake with headache, and mind fog. The RAT still remains negative. Come Friday evening, I have a fever and body aches. Covid strikes.

Close Contact Isolation (First week)

It's Friday afternoon, I tear open the RAT. I stick the clean swab up my nose, swirl it ten times around my right nostril. Sneeze. The I swirl it ten times around my left nostril. My eyes tear, I sneeze again. I dip the swab into the solution and swirl, dab and mix the sample twenty or so times. I carefully squeeze 5 drops into the applicator and watch the liquid fill up the indicator. 15 minutes later, the indicator is still lined up with the "T". Negative. Time to go out. I meet colleagues for drinks in an outdoor area before heading back to the apartment. By the time I get back to the apartment there's 7 people chatting, drinking, eating. 

It's now Sunday, we have the Airbnb for another two days. NSW is currently reporting around 35,000 cases a day, down from the 100,000 or so, earlier this month. My phone flashes a notification, I've been added to a newly created Whatsapp group. Everybody who came over to the apartment on Friday is in the chat. The first message is "Tim got a positive result and I got a negative result". No sweat, one out of 8. We head over to the get a PCR. I test negative, my house mate tests positive. So begins the slow emergence of the cluster gathering that we hosted. 

I immediately check into a new hotel and prepare to isolate. Over the next couple of days, 7 out of the 8 people from Friday night would eventually test positive to Covid. A week goes by, two RAT tests, two PCR tests later. I, the only one with the booster remains negative.

#whoisamanjaffari

Air bnb

Out of the group of my Sydney friends there are literally three remaining single men in the group. One of them lives in Singapore, the other guy is the one writing this blog. Both these guys have younger sisters that have recently had their first kid. Both these guys are back in Sydney meeting their respective nieces and nephews for the first time. I haven't seen the Singapore guy in over two years. So we decide to hire out an Air BNB in Surry Hills for the week. The rationale, it's a central location, people can pop by and say hello without being in busy, crowded areas.

Before each and every meeting, we do a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). 

Omicron

"Hong Kong has announced a two-week ban on incoming flights from eight countries and tightened coronavirus restrictions after detecting cases of the Omicron variant.

Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, told reporters on Wednesday that incoming flights from Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States, including interchanges, would be banned from January 8 to January 21." - As reported by Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/5/hong-kong-bans-flights-from-8-countries-tightens-covid-curbs

New Years

Chilled New Years in Sydney, Bondi beach, followed by extended cousin's gathering out in Olympic Park