✰¢reative ¢onstellation✰: #425 My Quarantine Story of 21 days

MY QUARANTINE STORY OF 21 DAYS

It is said that it takes 21 days to make or break any habit provided you do it every day for 21 days without any fail. This number 21 seemed frightening to me at first, when I got the news of the HK government’s policy of 21 days Quarantine at Government designated hotels(supposedly 5-starred) for those traveling to HK from high-risk countries like India but I could hardly anticipate the myriad of experiences that it would provide me.

I have always wished to have a solo trip abroad, luckily this year my wish got fulfilled amidst the pandemic. I took a chartered flight to Hong Kong from Delhi in April. I got to know about the flight just a week before my departure and there was a lot of stuff to do.

To organize my writing of sharing my story of Quarantine, I am going to divide this experience into different phases as below;

Phase-1 Preparatory Phase

This phase involved everything related to booking the flight and the HK govt. Designated Hotels for Quarantine, arranging required documents for traveling during the pandemic, getting the report of COVID test done before 72 hours of travel, it was really taxing.

Phase -2 Journey Begins; Part-1

I took the early morning flight to Delhi from Bhubaneswar. As soon as I reached Delhi, I had 6-7 hours, in my hand, to board the evening flight to HK. It was my first international solo trip by flight during the pandemic, I was cautious about maintaining the social distancing. I was very excited about being able to strike off something from my bucket list.

After finishing off my lunch, I headed towards the international departure area of IGIA. I had to convert INR to HKD so as to be on the safe side even though I knew I might not need them there as major expenses like bookings were already taken care of. It was a great initiative by the travel agent to do one-time luggage check-in directly from Bhubaneswar to HK.

After completing the document verification at immigration in IGIA,Delhi, I moved to the waiting area. I had around 30 minutes which I used to converse with my family. Then I boarded the flight at 8P.M by abiding by all safety measures.

Phase 3- Journey Begins; Part-2

The flight took off from IGIA, Delhi at around 7:50p.m. I took a private chartered flight (which used to fly to HK twice a month because of the pandemic) which transported me to the destination in 5hours and 30minutes. The flight was a little crowded for this era of pandemic and kids were getting anxious with masks and PPE kits which made them roam inside the flight. I watched Article 15, which was always there in my list of movies to be watched along with some episodes of Friends. I enjoyed the dinner and especially the custard was too delicious.

I could hardly sleep in those five and half hours of my journey. Oh, no! not because of the excitement but for the cries of toddlers. They were impatient with masks over their mouths. The next morning, I landed in Hong Kong at 4:00a.m. Then began a series of processes and tests which included verification of our documents, preliminary tests such as the swab test and Nasal test . After the tests were done, the passengers were instructed to wait in a sitting area, which was there in the airport, for the result of the test. It reminded me of the moments of exam in a huge examination hall from school and college days when students were made to sit at some fixed distance. I realized that my Indian SIM card had become useless at that point of time but thanks to the public wi-fi hotspot at the airport, I could connect with my family. That time of waiting was unpredictable then until the result of swab test of everyone from my flight was out. A voice from someone woke me up from my slumber telling me that the report came negative and I could then go to the hotel. I then realized that I had almost fallen into sleep for 4 hours!

I collected my belongings and headed towards the exit. On the way to exit, a tracker was tied to my wrist which would monitor my restricted movement inside my hotel room for the next 21 days and breaching of this rule might put me into prison for 6 months or impose a fine of 25,000HKD. I was asked to install stayhomesafe app which would keep an eye on my movement during my Quarantine.

HKIA

After all the formalities were over, someone in PPE kit asked those passengers, who booked in Regal Airport Hotel, to make a queue. So, a queue, of four people comprising of two males and two females was directed to the Regal Airport Hotel which was connected to the airport and was barely 200 meters away.

Waiting for the preliminary COVID report at the airport

Phase 4- 21 days Quarantine at the hotel

Entrance of Regal Airport Hotel

I reached the Regal Airport Hotel around 11 a.m. I was so hungry and exhausted at that time. I was allotted a room on the third floor which had a nameplate with ‘Shivaya’ written on it. You can imagine the sense of relief that one gets from coming across something familiar. I was relieved by the fact that the invisible forces were taking care of me in a foreign land.

I took bath and freshened up quickly. The breakfast given by the hotel was inedible for me, so I relied upon the protein powder, prepared by my mother-in-law, for my breakfast. My room was spacious with a queen-size bed, a massage bed (perhaps), an LCD screen mounted at the wall facing the bed, a big mirror (what else one wants!!) I later utilized the space of the room for my workout and walking. The windows of the room could not be opened as per the guidelines of the government.

Tracker

My daily routine included getting up in the morning, looking through the window, and observing the two-tiered colorful buses passing by, doing workouts, practicing music, being a guide to give a virtual tour to my family and friends, connecting with other people Quarantining at HK preferably in the same hotel, complete the assignments of the courses I was enrolled into etc. I opted for fruits in the breakfast, my lunch and dinner included Indian Veg cuisine. Food seemed to be a little repetitive but I could not have asked for more in a country that provided veg dishes of my preference. I found the staff of the hotel really helpful and cordial. They were always eager to help me whenever I needed any.The tracker tied to my wrist demanded me to scan the QRcode on it, every now and then. I had no option except to fulfill its demand.

Lunch at Regal Airport Hotel

During those days, I felt blessed to have across an online coaching platform; Study Table, which provided free education to underprivileged students of class 10^th of Odisha.I used to teach English,Maths and Science to these kids through zoom. It fulfilled two wishes of mine; first to teach students; second to help the needy ones.

Phase 5- The Twist in the plot

View from my window @RAH

I felt feverish and cold on 4^th day of my arrival at the hotel. I had a severe headache, running nose, sore throat, lose motion, and stomach upset. I assumed it to be the result of jet lag or the food provided at the hotel. I took a tablet of paracetamol and in two days I was fit and fine except for the loss of taste and smell. It was so kind of my husband to deliver all eatables and a box of Sabji and Roti, which I ate so fondly [He delivered bags of food items at the entrance of the hotel and the staff put it at the door of my room.] I regained a sense of taste and smell after 2-3 days and resumed my normal routine. During that time,I got the news that

Cooked food by my husband

around 90 passengers from my flight got infected and all flights from India to HK were banned for next one month.

As per the guidelines of the HK govt., COVID tests on the 12^th day and 19^th day were mandatory to be performed on people Quarantining at the hotel. The result of my 12^th day test came to me like a bolt from the blue. By that time, I had got the news of around 80 cases of positive from my flight, especially people sitting adjacent to my seats were already tested positive. Health Department of HK Govt. released a report of COVID cases every day at around 4P.M HKT which I used to follow religiously.

Dinner at Regal Airport Hotel

I received a call from the hotel staff stating that my report had come positive and I would be shifted to the hospital by evening. Govt. officials would come for picking me up. It was the time when my family was also going through a tough phase as my father had surgery on that day, so I kept this a secret.

I did not understand why destiny had to intervene in my normal routine as I had almost got habituated to that room of the hotel. The thought of getting surrounded by that health-care-equipment scared me. I received a call from the Department of Health, HK enquiring about the background for details and asked me to pack up my luggage and wait for the official to arrive. I did as I was instructed to and waited for the govt. officials to arrive.

Ambulance for shifting me to PMH from the hotel

Two men clad in PPE kit knocked on my room at around 8:45p.m and asked me to follow them with my luggage. I was directed out of the hotel through the emergency exit where there stood an ambulance. I was asked to get into the ambulance. After doing preliminary verification based on my identity in the ambulance, my journey to the uncertainty began. I neither knew those people who were in the van nor the route to the hospital. I even did not have an HK-SIM card with me. All I knew, just a few minutes before the departure of the ambulance, was that I was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital. After the journey of nearly 50 minutes, I reached Princess Margaret hospital(PMH). In those 50 minutes of the journey, I was completely cut off from the communication as I had no network to connect to. I had no choice of my own except to trust the process. Had I been in India under such circumstances, I would not have been alive to tell my story and everyone knows the reason very well.

View from my window at PMH

That journey reinforced my trust in the people regarding the safety of women. Those people helped me to shift to a chamber in the hospital. I can never thank them enough. On that floor of the hospital, COVID-positive patients were kept in isolation and under observation. I connected with my family through the wifi of the hospital and got to know some good news lie successful surgery of my father, recovery of my uncle and grandmother who was also hospitalized. I was then, in the interior of the city, some 5kms from where my husband had been staying, unlike that of the Regal Airport Hotel which was situated on a different island than that of my husband’s place. That gave me enough reasons to feel grateful before going to bed.

My bed at PMH

The next morning was in a different place than my usual place of stay for the last 2 weeks. The nurse woke me up as early as 6:30 a.m to perform mandatory tests like blood pressure, temperature, and saturation level. Later she did an X-ray, blood, and saliva test. These mandatory tests were performed every day till I was at the hospital. The nurse asked me to wait for the call of the doctor. I started learning German lessons from Duolingo which had been pending for many years. My ward was cleaned regularly and a hygienic environment was maintained. I missed the meals of the hotel very much as the food given at the hospital was bland and tasteless.

In HK, no-call is considered a great sign, however, after two days, I got a call from the doctor stating that some abnormalities had been found from my test report. A minor infection in my liver was detected and he suspected it to be the action of the Corona Virus. He said that I would have to be shifted to a specialized center, HKICC(HK Infection Control Center), North Lantau Island for further treatment the next day.

Meal at PMH

That evening, my husband delivered HK SIMS along with some eatables at the hospital which were provided to me. I had no idea about how HKICC would look like. The next day morning at around 10:30a.m, two govt. officials clad in PPE kit came to pick me up in an ambulance. I thanked the nurses before leaving as they took care of me really well except for handing me a big-fat medical bill!

Phase 6- At HKICC, North Lantau

HKICC,North Lantau

HKICC was situated close to the airport, so again I was taken out of the city. The journey took around 45 minutes, unlike my last travel experience; I could look around through the window of the ambulance as it was during the daytime. I was a little worried about my family as I got to know that almost all of them had got infected with COVID. I knew that I was getting the best facility there which they might not be in India.

It was a huge center with capacities of over 800 beds. Only around 20-30 beds were occupied when I got admitted there. I was put into an isolation hall with 10 empty beds, kept there. I was instructed to perform mandatory tests such as blood pressure test, temperature test, and oxygen level saturation test twice a day and feed these data a PC kept in that hall. It was a quite spacious hall with proper lighting but the windows were closed. The wifi facility was better than the two places where I had stayed before and the food provided was the best as compared to the past. I liked that place very much and I resumed my normal activities like singing, picking up the course where I had left, watching some series and movies, learning German, connecting with friends and family, etc.

Smart system for mandatory tests

When I arrived in HKICC, after completing my background verification, a set of tests such as mandatory test, saliva test, x-ray, thyroid test, blood sugar, pregnancy test, etc. were conducted and I was asked to wait for the report. Every afternoon, the nurse would collect the blood sample and perform antibodies test. If reports of two successive tests achieved the desired CT value(which they never revealed), I would be discharged from the hospital. I kept eagerly waiting for the day of my discharge from HKICC. I was given some antibacterial tablets to cure the infection in my liver.

One day, I received a call from the doctor regarding the attainment of desired CT value and I would be discharged the next day after completing all formalities of HKICC. That night I could not sleep with the excitement of going out of HKICC and meeting my husband after six months. Luckily, I was discharged on my 21st day of Quarantine, not a day more! The nurses at HKICC were very helpful and caring. They helped me to carry my luggage out of HKICC and booked the taxi for me after finding the fact that I had come to HK for the first time. I reached my husband’s place after a taxi ride of 40 minutes.

Lunch at HKICC

My Top 5 Takeaways from this experience:

1) 1) It’s never wise to form opinions about people and places based on available media and other’s experiences. I found the people of HK very kind and helpful. They always treated me well, not differentiating on the basis of the country I originated from. I can never thank them enough for their unconditional gesture of kindness!

2) 2) Being optimistic in tough situations helps. I learned to trust the process and believe in the plan of the almighty. Not every uncertainty in life is problematic.

3) 3)Constructive hobbies can be developed easily in 21 days. I started learning German during my Quarantine and I am still continuing that. Hobbies literally saved me from boredom.

4) 4) The gift of life is NOW. The present is the best moment. Sometimes, it may appear dull or boring but when it passes, it will definitely provide memories for life. I experienced Quarantining in a 5-starred hotel in a foreign land for 21 days which might not have happened otherwise.

5) 5)There are a thousand reasons to feel grateful in a situation. The quickest one would be to be able to breathe!

COVID-19 has taken a lot of lives and paralyzed the usual lifestyle of people. It was a very painful situation to lose my Grandmother due to it. In this tough situation, we need to stay strong and visualize our lives getting back to normal because it too shall pass!!

Sham Shui Po, Kowloon,HongKong

P.S: As promised to me, on the condition of settlement of all my medical bills in HK, to post this experience of mine in my blog, I just can’t express my relief in mere words about the news of me being exempted from paying the bills based on my residential status in HK. I am very grateful to the officials of the Immigration Department for instantly responding to my inquiry through the mail and thoughtfully considering my situation. I feel liberated from an unprecedented debt that could’ve reflected as a medical bill otherwise, if not have been settled. I am immensely grateful to the almighty for that! I am glad this ended on a happy note because of which I am able to share my experience with you.

I've uploaded two videos related to my Quarantine experiences on my YouTube channel ;Around The Globe