OUR FALSE TEST PAIN
Drysdale mum tells of horrible harassment after daughter’s false positive COVID-19 test
A DRYSDALE mum has called for kindness following her family’s harrowing ordeal after her 10-year-old daughter returned a false positive COVID-19 test.
Tara Blake said the false alarm, which resulted in Drysdale Primary School closing for a day, triggered wild rumours and a lack of empathy from many locals as well as attacks on her family by keyboard warriors.
The lifelong Drysdale resident said people on local social media pages were wrongly identifying other families as having coronavirus; demanding the case be named and shamed; and even suggesting the family had been hiding people from hot spots in their home.
“It was crazy,” Ms Blake said. “I had to stop reading because it was so awful.”
On Tuesday last week, the first day of term three, Ms Blake’s daughter Lilly woke up with a sore throat and later developed a high temperature.
She stayed home and was tested at a site operated by a private pathology provider on Wednesday.
Although Lilly was feeling better, she stayed home for the rest of the week while waiting for the result, as per government advice. Ms Blake, a mum of three, said she received a call on Saturday morning to inform her Lilly’s test result was positive.
“It was very scary, I did the right things keeping her home and getting her tested but never thought it would come back positive,” Ms Blake said.
“It was horrible having to tell her. She thought she was going to die, I had to reassure her that everything was OK.
“It was definitely a very scary time for her.”
The family and multiple close contacts immediately were tested for coronavirus and entered self-isolation.
Ms Blake said she was informed by the pathology provider the result could have been a false positive on Sunday, and Lilly was then retested by Barwon Health.
Drysdale Primary on Sunday night informed its community the school would be closed on Monday while investigations took place after a reported case of coronavirus.
Ms Blake said that was when the rumour mill went into overdrive and a disturbing lack of empathy was on show in the community. “A lot of them were strangers claiming they knew us and that we’d been disobeying rules,” she said.
“Out of all the comments there was only a handful saying ‘we hope they’re OK’.”
Lilly’s immediate family’s tests came back negative on Monday, and Ms Blake was informed Lilly’s second test came back negative that night.
Drysdale Primary told its community the school would reopen on Tuesday.
Following the ordeal, Ms Blake said she was in “disbelief” at how horribly people initially reacted, but had received support after speaking out.
“I just want people to realise when you hear about a case, that’s a real person and family and it affects many people,” she said. “It’s going to happen down here and we need to support people.”