Could I have caught it?!

[GabyAby84]

On the 9th May, a family friend left a present on our doorstep.
We are being cautious so we sprayed it all down before we brought it into the house.

She’s posted on social media today to say she’s isolating because her daughter is a carer and one of the residents at her care home tested positive.

She said her daughters test came back negative but to be safe she’s got to isolate.

I’m so worried we’ve touched stuff she touched. Is there a risk we could’ve caught it?

Pollen is bad here this year, sore throats and runny nose and cough. Allergy nasal spray, gargling with warm, salt water helps. If stuff has been sanitized, you are ok. DH wears gloves for sanitizing our deliveries, and we don't open mail or parcels for a week. Feel better!

If you have a sore throat you need to take a test. That’s what the adverts on tv say......any symptoms get tested.

Hi OP, I do get where you are coming from but I think you are magnifying the situation for yourself in a way. I have anxiety and I was exactly the same at the beginning of all this but I have somehow grounded and contained my ‘hysteria’ Over the last few months. I cannot really explain very well how I arrived at this calmness. My overwhelming feeling was that others weren’t taking sufficient precautions and I didn’t really read much news for weeks bar the main things. I have really just become more logical at looking at things and realising the media does not necessarily represent the true picture. I also had the scratchy throat thing and constant need to clear my throat - anxiety manifesting itself as a physical symptom. So you have to realise although you perceive the Parcel as a risk , this does not logically stack up. You would have to go through such a string of unlikely events that it is next to impossible. Not forgetting of course that IF virus ended up on the parcel someone would have to cough directly on it For There To be sufficient to still be infectious and then It would have to survive transport, spraying Etc also the virus starts dying outside a host and the half life is not long at all - so the ‘infectious ness’ would be decreasing every minute. Ie just because It may be detected on cardboard after 24 hours does not mean there would be an amount left that could cause illness. One thing that did help me was thinking what I could positively do to reduce my own risk since there is no way to dictate how others deal with their own ‘hygiene’. Namely eating properly , reducing sugar, ensuring I am taking vitamin D ( also have positive effect on mental health if you are deficient) and also getting outside and doing plenty of things to keep fit and busy and immune system working well. Your immune system works well when constantly challenged so low risk activities will do you a world of good and ironically staying indoors will reduce your vit d level and immunity as you are not challenging it as you normally would. Only thing I have reduced is shopping Trips ( Now do mainly click and collect) or if I do go to the supermarket I wear a mask and am careful to distance. I also have a running list on my phone so I can keep track of what I need & don’t cause myself extra trips by forgetting things. I then sanitise hands and wash when home, dry things are fine to be put away as not used for a couple of day’s anyway & anything from fridge or urgent can be given a wipe. Sounds like a lot of faff but by keeping to what I CAN do myself , I have become pretty much the calmest I’ve ever been so a complete 180 turn from where I was 3 months ago. Hopefully it can turn out the same with you. It’s not that I’m
Not acutely aware of what’s going on but it’s realising there are things you can do.