17 days of isolation from being #corona positive to #corona negative

I am Vishal Sharma, Senior Manager (Environment), NHPC, posted at Parbati-III Power Station, District Kullu, HP. I came in contact with a COVID-19 positive person at my office. But before I tested positive, a colleague got positive and since I was a primary contact, I had to go for testing immediately. Thankfully my family and I did not have any symptoms but because they were secondary contacts, we four went to the Community Health Centre, Bhuntar for RT-PCR test on 12th November. Our samples were sent to the Ner Chowk Medical College, Mandi for testing. The results of the tests came out on 14th November, wherein my wife (Age 41) and my son (age 13) were declared COVID positive and my daughter (age 10) was negative; my result was declared as inconclusive. We were anyway isolating but the tougher task was to isolate my 10 years old girl. We all stayed in separate rooms.

Before developing symptoms, we started taking Ivermectin, Doxycycline, Vitamin C along with zinc on doctor’s advice. On 14th November, I developed COVID symptoms with blocked nose, complete loss of smell and very mild fever of 99.2 degree F. My son developed moderate fever upto 100.6 degree F with a little coughing. My wife was asymptomatic throughout the course of disease. On 16th, I was also declared COVID-19 positive after Rapid Antigen Test by the Govt authorities. We were connected with State Authorities through Asha Worker during the course of isolation.

My symptoms were by and large of mild nature but my son developed high fever, which went upto 103 degree F and also suffered with a stomach upset on the night of 15th. The fever wasn’t going down despite giving 650 mg of paracetamol. On doctor’s advice, my son was put on antibiotic Augmentin for 5 days. Since I was a 43 years old and diabetic, I was put on the antiviral drug Favipiravir for seven days. We continued to carry out betadine gargles and steam vapour four times a day. Our oxymeter reading (SPO2 level) was always in the range from 96 to 99 and even after six minute walk tests, SPO2 level never came down below 95. All of the household work such as sanitization of house, cooking and washing etc were handled by my wife with my assistance. My daughter stayed connected to us through video calls and it was a tough task for us to make her sleep alone. My son’s fever finally came down on 17th and I regained my smell on 21st November.

Since we were in Himachal Pradesh, wherein health care facilities are not at par with that of NCR and Chandigarh, we were constantly worried through the entire course of disease. Since we belong to the state of Uttar Pradesh, we did not even have any relatives nearby. But my family was assisted by my office colleagues for medicines and essential items delivery.

Since we had started taking medicines before the onset of symptoms, COVID disease remained asymptomatic for my wife, mild for me and moderate for my son. We were able to keep our daughter protected from COVID 19. We all recovered within one week but we followed strict isolation for 17 days during the entire course of disease as per Government guidelines.

Since we were not having symptoms for the past 10 days and completed our isolation period of 17 days, we were discharged from home isolation today by State authorities.

Here are some take aways that I would like to share with everyone:


-Never get panicked by the disease and do not get nervous. Me and my family remained calm and did not lose nerves even after three of us declared COVID positive.

-Take steam four or five times a day along with Betadiene gargles for coughing.

-Initial days of disease are very important so do not waste time and get it checked even in case of little doubt. I got the whole of the family checked even when none of us were having symptoms.
-Start the treatment as soon as possible. The earlier the treatment starts, the milder the symptoms will be.

-Instead of having kadha, I prepared boiled water with crushed cloves, black pepper and tulsi leaves and put it in hot water flasks after filtration. We kept ourselves hydrated throughout the course of disease.

-Take soaked almonds, one apple a day and two boiled eggs everyday. You can have walnuts too. Taking milk twice a day is very important. Chyawanprash can be a good supplement too.

-We all took Vitamin D before the onset of disease.

-Monitor temperature and SPO2 levels five times a day.

-Check blood glucose level regularly during the disease period. If your level is under control, your diabetes will not affect recovery from the disease.

-Keep your medicine box ready with the guidance of a doctor.

At last, I would like to thank my organization NHPC Ltd for being with me and my family during this tough phase of my life. I hope people will be benefitted and will take preventive care after reading my family’s ordeal with the diseases.

(Representational image used)

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