(no subject)

[contrarianarchon]

There should be a dictionary of obscure sorrows word for "The realisation that going and getting tested for covid has exposed me to more risk (person in queue ahead of me was no mask + coughing) than I've experienced in the prior month (1 grocery trip plus three or so laundry trips)".

Honestly one of the least pleasent experiences I've had in a while. (Also the actual test is really no fun)

Still! Third-to-last day in norway go! Isn't that fucking terrifying!

Comments

[contrarianarchon]

(Also my parents deflecting any attempts to determine what I'll have to do if I do have it with assurances I don't is really frustrating, like, sometimes it's much more assuring to have any idea what will happen in the worst-case scenario than it is to have the people around you kinda forcibly bury your head in the sand.)

[sigmaleph]

oof, yeah, that's not an ideal risk-management attitude

Good luck with testing and travelling and such!

[contrarianarchon]

Thanks! I'm doing my best!

[brin_bellway]

*sympathies*

COVID-19 testing centres are pretty fucking terrifying if you're not already confident you've got it, and honestly would still be scary if you were (increasing your viral dose is bad even if you're already infected, plus you're risking catching something else on top of it from someone who thought they had COVID but it was actually a different disease).

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>>(person in queue ahead of me was no mask + coughing)

WTF

...okay, yes, I *also* was right behind a pair of maskless clearly-sick people in the testing line, but we had *cars* in the way (which is what *gave* them the impression they didn't need to wear masks; the history-taker was not pleased, and honestly I'm surprised they got through the previous two stations without anyone either giving them masks or telling them to turn around and come back with their own). You don't have a car, nor anyone in your bubble to drive you there. Was this at least outdoors?

...wait, hang the fuck on, are you telling me you went for a *travel screening* and they made you stand behind a coughing person?? In Canada, travel screenings (+ high-risk-job screenings) are done at *separate facilities* from tests for people-who-have-active-reason-to-suspect-COVID.

Yeah, I just found an official English translation of Oslo COVID-testing rules and I don't see *anything* in here about separating higher-risk people from lower-risk people. I'm sorry your country-of-current-residence isn't more sensible.

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>>(Also the actual test is really no fun)

Be careful about *touching* that side of your nose for the rest of the day, even after the baseline pain stops. I was as gentle as I could manage with my bedtime grooming that night and it still hurt for several minutes afterward.

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>>my parents deflecting any attempts to determine what I'll have to do if I do have it with assurances I don't

:(

[contrarianarchon]

>>>...wait, hang the fuck on, are you telling me you went for a *travel screening* and they made you stand behind a coughing person?? In Canada, travel screenings (+ high-risk-job screenings) are done at *separate facilities* from tests for people-who-have-active-reason-to-suspect-COVID.

Oh it was a genuine trial to find someone who was willing to do travel screenings and give the results within the required window! Like, of ~6-8 places I checked at, only one was willing to guarantee they'd give me the results to a "Must be done in the last 72 hours to travel" test within less than 3 days (everywhere else was 3-4 days, unless we find something more important to do or we're that one place which *mails* the results to foreigners because fuck you if you're not on the rolls of our public healthcare). And even then it was at an additional fee of ~500 crowns (~100 CAD, I think, give or take, like, 20%)! From the tone of some of the documents I read, I got the distinct impression they think travel screenings are a frivolous waste of covid-test resources and should be discouraged. When you need a test to get into literally denmark.


>>>Was this at least outdoors

Nope! Indoors (Also they'd moved the testing facility in the last week or so I think and it was a bit of a pain to find - they said "between the [Shop A] and the [Shop B]" but shop A was half a block down the street and shop B was two blocks up the street; far enough that I didn't notice it at all when checking google maps about it. It was pretty empty though; there was me, coughing-dude, one other woman, and a guy who had a broken leg or something and couldn't open the door while balancing on his crutches so I had to do it, and that was all. (Also the admin lady was, while secure behind the big perspex screens they have up everywhere for service worker, was *also* not wearing a mask. The woman actually doing the tests was, at least (and a bunch of other protective gear)

[brin_bellway]

Holy *shit*.

Well of *course* travel screenings are bad if you do them like *that*, [exposing people to probable COVID patients and then immediately shipping them off to the four corners of the Earth before they have time to find out if they caught it from the testing centre] is a terrible idea. I don't know if--actually, this is the Internet, I'll go look it up.

Oh sweet, Australia's running quarantine hotels! Good for them! You're a step above us there: Canada also has mandatory 14-day quarantines upon entering the country but expects you to make your own arrangements (they ask you at the border what those arrangements are). (I was gonna say that if I were you I'd do the 14-day quarantine *regardless* of whether it's legally mandated.)

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Sounds like you didn't have to wait in line very long, though, so that's a good sign. Fly-bys, while certainly best avoided, are relatively safe: it's *extended* sharing of airspace you really gotta avoid like...well, you know.

[contrarianarchon]

Quarantine hotels are a good policy WRT quarantine but god they're such a fucking expense; I mentioned the process of getting home is costing me six months worth of expenses, right? If it weren't for mental health+study+visa type concerns it'd almost be cheaper to wait for the vaccine at this stage. Those are in fact big concerns, though.

(Also I did in fact have to wait in line, since you Must Go Exactly When You Booked and thus the testers spent 10 minutes sitting in their office doing nothing while I stood alone in the queue. I hope they enjoyed their break...)

[mindstalk]

Australia makes you pay for quarantine as a returning citizen? Ouch.

My general sympathies. I still haven't any covid test; partly I had no reason to suspect I had it, and yeah, figured going for a test was the most dangerous thing I could do. Hell, going for a *vaccine* was among the most dangerous things I'd done in the past year.

[contrarianarchon]

It does, is expensive. And yeah, I don't see the point of getting tested without reasonable suspicion.

(And like, due note, Australia has hardly any coronavirus. So I guess we're doing something right.)

[mindstalk]

Australia is done better than Japan! and is tied with South Korea, in deaths/capita. Despite what I think is a casual attitude toward masking, though please correct me. "Lockdown until transmission STOPS HAPPENING" seems about equal with "everyone wear a mask". I suppose SK probably hurt its economy less.

[contrarianarchon]

Yeah there is Literally No Masks where I am. Also there hasn't been a community-transmitted case (as opposed to a traveller entering while having the virus) in months so like, that's kinda fair? Other states are worse, though.