Brisbane radio star Robin Bailey reveals Covid diagnosis

Brisbane radio star Robin Bailey has told how she spent the new year in quarantine after she and her children fell ill, but it took three days of queuing to get a test before they were able to confirm it was Covid-19.

Robin Bailey is the latest Queensland identity to reveal she contracted Covid-19 during the ongoing outbreak of the Omicron variant.

The Brisbane radio star appeared on the 97.3FM breakfast show via Zoom on Thursday, sharing with co-host Terry Hansen that her three sons fell ill following New Year’s Eve celebrations on the Gold Coast.

She returned home on January 3 and became a close contact before also falling ill, saying she burst into tears when she received her positive test.

“Three sick kids. It progressed from there. I was the last one to fall,” Bailey said.

Brisbane radio presenter Robin Bailey and her three sons Fin, Lewin and Piper. Photo: Mark Cranitch.

“We spent three days in the car trying to get tested. We finally got tested last Wednesday and the results came back Monday.”

“Hours and hours we spent in the car queuing only to be turned away from sites in Ipswich, Indooroopilly and Ashgrove. If I wasn’t infected before then I certainly was after. Finally we got into Kenmore Clinics and were told to isolate for 7 days awaiting our results.”

Bailey said she while none of her family required hospital care, a close friend of hers has been admitted to hospital with the virus.

“I’ve been pretty sick,” she said.

“It’s not something to be trivialised. It’s a b----.”

“This is the second day I’ve been upright. I am on the improve. I have done my seven days’ quarantine and I’m allowed to re-enter the world tomorrow.”

“It’s been an interesting 10 days. I had all my kids and they couldn’t leave.”

In a social media post later on Thursday Bailey described how it had been unlike any illness she had previously suffered, adding the family all experienced differing symptoms.

“It’s not like a cold or a flu where you get progressively sicker. It’s like a series of symptoms that can knock you out and leave you breathless or hardly impact you, and that can happen moment by moment day by day,” she wrote.

She described a hot temperature, “prickly skin”, a persistent headache, fogginess, lack of taste, and a heavy chest.

“I also felt so bloody angry. I got my result and burst into tears. Not because I didn’t expect it but because I was starting to think that I was losing my mind,” she said.

“As a chronic asthmatic I’ve upped my lung meds and kept a constant eye on my peak flow metre to check my capacity to breathe out which is a good indicator of the state of my lungs. So far so good.”

“Do not get me wrong, we are doing fine compared to all those people rushed to emergency because they cannot breathe or they feel like their chests are going to explode … But this is a health issue not to be trivialised or over exaggerated.”

Bailey and Hansen will return to the 97.3FM breakfast show on Monday following the festive period hiatus.

They will be joined by a new co-host after stalwart broadcaster Bob Gallagher resigned from the show at the end of 2021.