Help! I've got Covid and I'm stuck in a hotel

[medusawashere]

I travelled to Plymouth for Christmas and did all the right stuff. I'm double jabbed, booster booked for early Jan and have been doing lateral flow tests every day to stay safe and protect others.

This morning, I woke up coughing, sneezing and with chest pains and my LF is positive.

I'm stuck in a hotel with no way of getting home! I live in Bournemouth and my fiance (who was going to meet me Christmas Eve) has also tested positive.

Does anyone have any bright ideas or am I stuck in a hotel room for ten days? I'm devastated. I just want to go home :(

Ah, cross posted @Joystir59 - you split your advice into a second post:

“Trains aren't all packed. Get on a train and go home. Double mask. Dose yourself up with loads of cold meds.”

Have you had a PCR? If not have one!

Some taxi firms will take positive people but a 3 hour journey would cost a bomb and I don't think many drivers (or you!)would enjoy a 3 hour trip with the windows open Is he really too unwell to come and get you?!

@JuergenSchwarzwald I don’t think anyone is saying a 6 hour drive is “easy”.
It’s not. But it’s do-able. Especially do-able for a sick fiancé at Xmas!

I do agree with you on sickness and employers though!

So would the ‘get a train brigade’ happily sit next to OP for a few hours?

If so why don’t you get off your arses and drive her home, rather than calling someone else selfish for not spreading covid and driving when unfit.

FYI, when I was hospitalised with covid I was well enough to work, so I did, so according to a few MN nutters that makes me safe to drive six hours. Really what are some of you drinking?

I wouldn't expect someone to take time from a new job because I travelled to be close by to someone who I wouldn't actually be seeing! he's working from home, not pulling a double at the local fire station. He can drive to op, sleep over, work from her hotel and then can drive back tomorrow
After work hours.

@SleepingStandingUp

I wouldn't expect someone to take time from a new job because I travelled to be close by to someone who I wouldn't actually be seeing! he's working from home, not pulling a double at the local fire station. He can drive to op, sleep over, work from her hotel and then can drive back tomorrow After work hours.

Sleep over where?

In the car?

He has got covid.

@Simonjt

So would the ‘get a train brigade’ happily sit next to OP for a few hours?

If so why don’t you get off your arses and drive her home, rather than calling someone else selfish for not spreading covid and driving when unfit.

FYI, when I was hospitalised with covid I was well enough to work, so I did, so according to a few MN nutters that makes me safe to drive six hours. Really what are some of you drinking?

You don't know that OP's DP is like that though. I had covid a few weeks ago, it was a runny nose and a headache. We have no idea how ill he is unless OP tells us.

Of course if he’s actually ill, he can’t do it - but I’m sure you would have told us if he was ill, and you wouldn’t have said it was about work.

From the op:
I live in Bournemouth and my fiance (who was going to meet me Christmas Eve) has also tested positive.

Fiance is unwell and has to work from home.

Do people just ignore the parts that don't fit with their narrative or do they genuinely not understand that someone who is unwell and covid positive should not be undertaking a 6 hour round trip in general let alone at night and in winter.

I stayed in a travelodge not long after the first lockdown ended and they had a page with information about what to do if you developed symptoms during your stay. This was pre-tests so will have changed, but hotels should have some sort of procedure in place for if a guest tests positive. You should let the front desk know so they can help you out.

Staying in the hotel is more irresponsible for the staff and other guests. There is a much higher chance of others getting infected through bedding, towels, rubbish, ventilation systems because you shed more viruses in one place and are presumably not masked in room, likewise most people staying in their rooms or walking the corridors. Also presumably everyone at a hotel is travelling to other destinations, most likely visiting family at Xmas, so anyone infected would be walking time bombs for superspreader events.

To be honest, taking the train is reasonable as a last resort if you use N95/FFP2 (those sealed on all sides). Double masked people in a public space are extremely unlikely to infect each other. This is a known fact from doctors who treat covid patients while both are fully masked. Especially if you are not talking or extremely symptomatic. Yes, people do get infected on trains but there is a huge difference between infected/asymptomatic unmasked people openly talking and spreading droplets vs a known infection and taking all precautions.

@Bucanarab unwell can mean so many different things though. I had an unpleasant cold for a few days last week - negative LFT and PCR. I could easily have driven.

None of us know if the boyfriend is unwell enough to be unable to drive. It just seems to me that if he was, OP would some have said something like, “he’s unwell AND therefore cannot drive to me” rather than say she thinks he doesn’t want to ask for time off in a new job.

@Chequerboard and others, sorry can’t quote …

It was my recollection that the bed-blockers in question had already tested positive. Another, separated floor was being used for temporary medical staff.

Checked back and I was mistaken, but I’d still hope a temporary medical facility would be better at infection control than the average hotel.

@Coffeeshopcookies

Staying in the hotel is more irresponsible for the staff and other guests. There is a much higher chance of others getting infected through bedding, towels, rubbish, ventilation systems because you shed more viruses in one place and are presumably not masked in room, likewise most people staying in their rooms or walking the corridors. Also presumably everyone at a hotel is travelling to other destinations, most likely visiting family at Xmas, so anyone infected would be walking time bombs for superspreader events.

To be honest, taking the train is reasonable as a last resort if you use N95/FFP2 (those sealed on all sides). Double masked people in a public space are extremely unlikely to infect each other. This is a known fact from doctors who treat covid patients while both are fully masked. Especially if you are not talking or extremely symptomatic. Yes, people do get infected on trains but there is a huge difference between infected/asymptomatic unmasked people openly talking and spreading droplets vs a known infection and taking all precautions.

Medical staff are fit tested, thats why they are unlikely to become infected when treating positive patients.

Hotels have procedures for positive guests to prevent positive guests infecting staff and other service users.

@TrufflesAndToast

Do not marry a man who refuses to come and get his ill and stranded fiancée at Christmas time. He is well enough to wfh, he is well enough to come and get you.

Let one good thing come out of this, that you learned you are engaged to a nasty unkind and selfish man, before you married him.

The difference between WFH with Covid and driving how ever many miles, is wfh probably entails sitting behind a laptop or computer and a momentarily lapse in concentration isn't going to endanger you or another road user plus you can take short breaks when you need to. Those of you calling her fiancé selfish need to ask yourselves if you'd actually want to drive a long distance to pick a loved one up if you felt crap yourself because I know I most certainly wouldn't and not would I expect anyone else to either of the tables were turned

If your DF has mild covid then he should come and get you.

No, he should be isolating at home. He has covid. He should not be leaving the house for a 6-hour journey.

Fiance cannot come out and OP cannot take public transport or drive.

The only options remaining are to either ask a friend or family member if they can collect OP, or for OP to stay put. It's a shit option, but needs must.

@Idontgiveaf324

I don't really care if people think I am selfish. Fuck me if I would spend Christmas alone in a hotel room rather than with family when most people get only mild symptoms anyway. I would get on the train even if it was packed. I know all of you are going on like you wouldn't but I bet most would if it meant missing Christmas otherwise.

nope. I would stay where I was....as would anyone with any sense

@Idontgiveaf324

I don't really care if people think I am selfish. Fuck me if I would spend Christmas alone in a hotel room rather than with family when most people get only mild symptoms anyway. I would get on the train even if it was packed. I know all of you are going on like you wouldn't but I bet most would if it meant missing Christmas otherwise.

Wow. I genuinely find comments/thoughts like this (horrifyingly) fascinating. You genuinely couldn't care less about other people? I just don't get it. I think about others all the time, I think most people do. No, I wouldn't potentially ruin someone else's Christmas to protect my own. Never. It wouldn't sit right with me, so I wouldn't enjoy it.

why on earth would your fiancee not come just explain is a family emergency . I would not marry this man !

@Bucanarabunwell can mean so many different things though. I had an unpleasant cold for a few days last week - negative LFT and PCR. I could easily have driven.

None of usknowif the boyfriend is unwell enough to be unable to drive. It just seems to me that if he was, OP would some have said something like, “he’s unwell AND therefore cannot drive to me” rather than say shethinkshe doesn’t want to ask for time off in a new job.

We all know the fiance is unwell enough not to be able to drive. He is covid postive! That means he needs to isolate, not go off on 6 hour drives.

I remember Mumsnet during the first lockdown and any suggestion that someone was leaving the house more than their allotted once per day was might with an overwhelming chorus of ‘what part of stay at home do you not understand?!’

@snufflebuns

Just get the train with a mask on and don't sit near anyone else.

Plenty of others will be doing and it's more important you get home.

You're brave :)

Oh you poor love. What an absolute nightmare for you. I'm sure not helped by some people on here being really shitty and brutal with their responses. According to this thread, OP can't stay in the hotel, can't travel back, can't ask her (possibly a bit lame) fiance drive to get her - so what is she to do? See Covid and Christmas out in the gutter?

OP, I would say if your fiance is just having the 'heavy cold' version of Covid then yes he bloody well can drive to you! And maybe you can drive back? Covid isn't necessarily going to lay either of you out to the point you can't drive safely - or has nobody here ever driven while having a virus?

Failing that, perhaps your family in Totnes have a room where they can isolate you and someone can mask up and drive down to fetch you there? There are no easy solutions here and it's utterly miserable for you. I'm so sorry.

[quote Bucanarab]****@Bucanarabunwell can mean so many different things though. I had an unpleasant cold for a few days last week - negative LFT and PCR. I could easily have driven.

None of usknowif the boyfriend is unwell enough to be unable to drive. It just seems to me that if he was, OP would some have said something like, “he’s unwell AND therefore cannot drive to me” rather than say shethinkshe doesn’t want to ask for time off in a new job.

We all know the fiance is unwell enough not to be able to drive. He is covid postive! That means he needs to isolate, not go off on 6 hour drives.[/quote]
How do we know that @Bucanarab ?

If he was unwell enough to be not be able to drive, then why wouldn’t OP have just said that - not started supposing that he can’t have time off in the new job?

I personally would agree with him driving if fit to, despite the positive - but I wouldn’t argue with someone who said that he should isolate, in case of breakdown, etc.

But purely on whether he’s well enough to drive? OP hasn’t said that he isn’t, and as it’s pretty relevant I think she would have done!

Plenty of people have no more than mild cold symptoms.