How to prepare your home in case your family gets Covid

Journalist Sandra Moon has learnt the hard way there are things you can do to ease the impact of Covid getting into your household. Here is the advice she wished someone had given her.

OPINION

Many parents are facing the possibility of going into self-isolation as school returns and they are required to perform rapid antigen tests at home on their children.

So, there’s no better time to share the self-isolation lessons I learnt the hard way when my family and I spent the majority of January sick with Covid.

As a single parent providing sole care for a primary school aged child it was extremely challenging and despite following self-isolating protocols it seemed inevitable that if only one of us had Covid, the other was sure to get it.

Seven days isolating is long enough but I waited 13 days for my test result and self-isolation continued for seven days from the date of that result.

Needless to say this January has been long and some of the simplest things brought us unstuck.

I am a fairly well organised person but during self-isolation I struggled with some basics.

For example, I didn’t have more than a few days worth of my daughter’s medication.

We also had no appetite and just wanted to eat vegemite toast but had no butter.

But you can learn from my mistakes.

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Here are 10 things I wished I’d had organised way before a PCR test was on the cards.

10 items to prepare for Covid self isolation

1. Paracetamol. Consider all members of your family and a minimum seven day isolation period. You will need children’s and adult paracetamol to see you through a possible extension as well.
2. Thermometer. Do you have one? If so where is it and is it working? If not get straight onto it.
3. Regular medicine. Do you have a seven-day supply of your family’s regular medicine? Buy any over the counter or prescription drugs you will need if you went into lockdown.
4. Simple meal options. A loss of appetite combined with fatigue means meal prep needs to be simple. Think toast, cuppa soups, baked beans.
5. Foods easy on sore throats. It sounds like a child’s dream but ice cream and jelly was all my daughter could manage to eat for days.
6. Predict shopping needs now. Consider what you would need and fill that online trolley now. Items such as tissues, toilet paper, bleach, disinfectant, food and pet food. That way if you do come down ill, experience fatigue or brain fog, all you have to do is press purchase and you are good to go.
7. Fill up the car with petrol for emergencies such as if you had to take a family member to the local emergency department.
8. The washing pile. Try and be on top of the washing if it is piling up because you will need spare towels, sheets and clothes and you may simply not have the energy to do this.
9. A neighbour’s phone number. Help from a neighbour is crucial for things like putting your bins out on garbage day or walking the dog.
10. Outsource outside work. If you have a pool to maintain or lawns to be mown get a number at the ready for a few businesses that can help. Unlike indoor work, business people don’t need to come in close contact with your household members and having that those tasks taken care of can really take the pressure off.