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“My mom got a call while she was sleeping, and called all of us to her room and insisted we stand by the door. She then told us the bad news and gave us instructions on how things would work from there on, including everyone wearing a mask inside the house, and not being allowed in her room.”
The Babalwa family are now all quarantined in their rooms individually at home. Her mother was initially rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties and spent a week in ICU before being discharged.
Babalwa says while it’s been a difficult few weeks for her and her family, she has tried to remain positive.
“I was shocked when I got tested positive to be honest. But I soon realised that I needed to accept it so that I could recover and beat the virus. My niece looks up to me so I need to be brave for her.”
She and her family “went above and beyond” to avoid infection. “We took precautions which included sanitising surfaces every day. Whenever someone goes outside they have to sanitise, when coming inside the house they need to do the same.
“We took our vitamin C daily. We could only do so much. My mom is the one in contact with people, so we will have to try putting up further measures to make sure that she doesn’t bring it to the house again.
“Since the whole household is infected it has been challenging. We constantly have to ask family or friends to get us essentials that we need as we can’t be in contact with other people.”
Babalwa says she and her family members will be retested next week.
Alaric Prins, a researcher at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in Cape Town, always believed that contracting the coronavirus was an eventuality. On May 15, he learnt he had Covid-19. “I’m overall quite a healthy individual so my biggest concern was, ‘what if I had infected my parents?’ Both of whom live with chronic illnesses.”
Prins was tested on May 5 through a door-to-door community screening process in Cape Town. “It just so happened that I started showing flu-like symptoms a few days before so I was very lucky.”
He is self-isolating at home. “I only leave my room to use the bathroom, which is regularly sanitised. Food is left outside my room and all my eating utensils are kept and washed separately.”
He has received support from family and friends, which has made a “huge difference”. Even strangers on social media have reached out. Prins pleaded with all South Africans to adhere to all rules and regulations set out by the government and health officials.
“We have to do our best to curb the infection rate as much as possible... please stay home as much as humanly possible. Keep practising social distancing. As always, one has to assume that you could possibly be an asymptomatic carrier and there’s the risk of transmitting it to others.”
*Not their real names