The latest COVID outbreak has left no stone unturned, with thousands of people across Australia being touched by the spicy lung just in time for Christmas and New Year’s. Fun!
Because they’re a) bored in isolation and b) attention whores who turn everything into content (I say that with love, of course), we’ve seen a bunch of our fave influencers take to the ‘gram to document their experiences.
The Inspired Unemployed boys have already given us a warts and all version of the whole thing, and Laura Byrne and her fiancé Matt “Matty J“ Johnson have also been sharing regular updates from iso.
Aside from the token “these are my symptoms” updates, Matty J posted a Reel that completely nails the whole experience of NSW Health ghosting folks who return positive COVID test results.
His ‘6 months ago’ version of a NSW Health employee is businesslike and thorough, asking detailed questions about where Matty J has been and who he has breathed on in the last 60 days.
However, his present-day version sees Matty J making the call himself and the NSW Health employee appears to have totally given up. He ends up completely disappearing as Matty desperately gives him info about the Xmas party where he became infected.
The whole thing is painfully accurate. Many COVID affected people have taken to Twitter saying that they have received positive results and waited a full week with no contact from NSW Health at all, and just had to figure it out for themselves.
The friend in Sydney – also alone and unwell in iso – received her you are positive text from NSW Health and nothing else! Nothing! No follow up call, no information. What a sad indictment on the infrastructure and resourcing of NSW support staff that this is a thing! 9/-
— Tanya Bishop (@TMB28) December 27, 2021
Guys it’s day 6 of having COVID and I still have no idea what is happening or when I can leave….I still haven’t received a call from NSW Health yet either 😕🙃🥴
— nads 💕 (@thelifeofnadss) December 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/cruticus/status/1474206958513098757
Contact tracing seems to be out the window these days which is one thing, but there’s no advice offered about how long to isolate, what days to get tested and when you’re considered to be all-clear — kind of crucial details, no?
It’s important to note here (as Matty J does in his post) that we are living in ~unprecedented times~ and lord knows NSW Health are completely slammed at the moment, with the state reporting over 6,000 new COVID cases for the last three days running.
But when you get a text saying you’re COVID positive, it still says a NSW Health staffer will be in contact with more info. It seems that’s not really happening now that cases are so high, and patients are taking to online resources or calling NSW Health themselves to try and find a human to talk to.
It’s understandable that NSW Health would currently be struggling to contact every single person, but if that’s the case their text messaging should be altered to direct people to online resources so they’re not left high and dry.
If you’re COVID positive and don’t know wtf to do, here’s the official guide from NSW Health (updated December 21) and a guide to managing your symptoms at home from the Australian Government’s Department of Health.
