Life in lockdown...and relief after a genuine coronavirus scare

Well, here we are. A few weeks later and another entry for the Lockdown Diaries.

How are you all? We had our first Covid scare here last week. My housemate, Emma, works in a hospital, so we’ve been very strict on our cleaning regiment.

I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t been waiting for her to develop symptoms.

Every time she did the slightest cough, my eyes would widen and Emma would laugh and say: “I’m fine, Kerry!” Just call me the cough police.

The most common coughs so far have been “it just went down the wrong hole” or “I’ve just been for a run and I always cough after a run”.

All have passed my suspicion tests, but I’ve still kept a firm eye on her and the rest of the household.

Then, last Thursday evening, my worst fears came true. Emma was coughing. And she didn’t know why. My eyes widened so much you could see 95 per cent of my eyeball. I waited with bated breath.

If it was persistent, she’d be sent home from work on Friday morning. Sure enough, on Friday morning, my phone pinged.

It was Emma, warning me that she’d been sent to be swabbed for Covid and would have to isolate until she got the result.

If it was positive, she’d have to isolate for seven days or until she was symptom free, and we’d have to do the same, but for 14 days.

My head whirred. This was surely the end. I snapped myself out of my all-or-nothing thinking by reminding myself that it’s not like I see on the news for everyone.

We waited a long three days. I barely left my room, and a friend had to do our grocery shopping.

I distracted myself by preparing for the next family quiz. We’ve been holding weekly quizzes and so far they have been the highlight of lockdown. My cousin and his girlfriend join from Sheffield, my auntie and uncle from Wellingborough, and my family join from their village.

It was my turn to host last Friday and it was a lot of fun. I got to live out my inner TV presenter – which, if you’re interested, is one of my back-up careers – and I included a guest round of Northern Phrases which everyone found entertaining.

My grandad isn’t set up with Zoom and video calls, so he asked whether he could be our resident phone a friend. It works very well; he still gets to be a part of the quiz and racing to call him when we know he’ll know the answer is part of the fun.

It was Sunday afternoon when Emma’s results eventually came back. Negative. We were relieved.

She came out of her bedroom beaming, having spent 72 hours in there with nothing but an iPad and a keyboard to learn Coldplay on.

We retreated to the garden where we sat in the sunshine, eating dinner and talking about how much longer we think Lockdown Life will go on for.