Good News & Bad News

First the Bad News – It’s Day 52 and we’re in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil and both of us tested positive for Covid this morning. Ronnie has cold-like symptoms (sneezing, blowing, etc) but so far I am pretty much symptom free. Today is considered “Day 0” and tomorrow will be “Day 1” of 5 days of required isolation. Someone from medical staff will come to our room twice daily to check on us, take our temp, etc. At the end of our 5-day isolation period, they will re-test us and if negative, we will be released from isolation. At that point we will have to wear a mask for another 5 days (Brazil’s law). If our tests are not negative at 5 days, they will continue with daily testing until we both test negative.

As I said, I’m not feeling bad so that is obviously a good thing! However, if I’m going to develop symptoms, it would be better to develop them sooner rather than later because my delay would only extend our isolation time. Apparently there is an asymptomatic Covid and a pre-symptomatic Covid. At this point, we don’t know which mine is.

Probably the first question any of us asks ourselves when testing positive for Covid is “where did I get this?” In our case, we suspect that we got it from a couple we had dinner with in one of the specialty restaurants onboard. The wife (sitting next to me at a round table) had a nasty sounding cough and kept coughing into her napkin. Whenever she would do that, we kind of “knee-d” each other under the table and gave each other a questioning glance of “Does she has covid?” There were actually 2 other couples, one a delightful couple from New Zealand and the other (with the lady who was coughing) from the San Francisco bay area. They said they worked in the health care field so perhaps they didn’t feel it necessary to be tested. Who knows?

Anyway, we will miss experiencing the rest of Brazil, as we are in Salvador today and tomorrow, then on to Maceio on the 9th, Recife on the 10th, Natal on the 11^th and Fortaleza on the 12th. Six more days in Brazil and it looks as if we will miss it all. ☹

Now the Good News. We’re happy that we opted for a little larger room (you’d be surprised the difference a few extra feet can make when in a confined space). Medical has already communicated with our butler (yes, that’s what they call themselves) and a tray has been placed outside our door where our meals will be left. We can order from any of the restaurants onboard and it will be placed just outside our door. All we have to do is reach out and pick up our trays and call him when we're ready for them to be picked up. Our room has a large screen TV with a variety of news channels, documentaries, TV series, classic and new release movies and more stuff than we would ever watch. We have our computers and digital readers with unread books and Ronnie has his research to work on as he feels able. We also (thankfully) have a sliding door onto a balcony, which allows us some fresh air and a change of scenery when needed. I suppose if one has to be sick, there are lots worse ways and places to be!

Even so, we may have a long 5-? days ahead. But hopefully if our physical conditions don’t deteriorate, it won’t be too bad. And in the meantime, I’ve asked my friend Leslie to take some pictures for me so I will know what I’m missing! 

UPDATE on March 8: This was written yesterday but our connection was extremely poor and it would not post. Ronnie had a better night last night than the previous one. However, I now have a sore throat and swollen neck glands. I now believe my positive test result from yesterday!