You’ve got COVID, Now What?

The rapid rampant rise in the recent Omicron Cases in the nation has amplified the fear surrounding the virus and the infection in the country. Almost every other person you meet nowadays probably does have the virus, with the numbers of documented infections daily being in the tens of thousands, one lives in constant fear of obliviously contracting the virus.

The entire nation, through constant awareness messages and campaigns today knows to vax and mask up to avoid the virus; however, there seems to be massive information lag when it comes to what people do once they have COVID or think they have it. The questions that shroud the minds of the people when they get COVID scares are the usual, “How do I get tested? Where do I Go? What am I supposed to do? Where to get treated?”.

With government health offices almost unreachable on any given day, the authorities in tandem with IOM have been running the COVID Hotline since the advent of the virus. The numbers 1115 and 1133 give you 24/7 access to the COVID helpline set up by the authorities to answer every query one might have. Currently consisting of 6 government workers and the rest WHO helpers, the hotline call-attendees deal with an array of questions and people daily, from information regarding what vaccine is available in which hospital, when to what to do and where to go once you do get the virus, the hotline employees work day and night to alert those who seek information on the pandemic.

Speaking of their day's work, an employee of the COVID Hotline says, “We get many calls every day, we inform and educate the concerned citizens about what to do in their situation. The contact info of all those who’ve tested positive for the virus comes to us from labs, we call these people and make them aware of their situation, what they are to do, self-isolation guidelines and procedures and also the nearest medical facility to help them out.”

If one ever doubts if they do have COVID, officials recommend PCR or rapid antigen tests however the self-testing kits are also available to those looking for a quick COVID screen.