Caught Covid outside? :(

[Threelittlegins]

My husband has been working from home for months.
We don’t go to a supermarket we have food delivered and we always wipe it down.

Since lockdown began the only places we have been is for a walk.

I take my DS for a walk to our local park most days. (Only a baby so we don’t use the play area)

On Tuesday I met up with a friend and we went for a walk around a local lake.
It was quite busy but I never had close contact with anyone.
A few runners did run past quite close though.

Me and my friend distanced the whole time.

Before our walk we visited the cafe for a takeaway coffee. It’s all done outside so we didn’t have to go in.

I did drink from a disposable coffee cup but sanitised my hands when I’d finished, washed hands when I got home.

This morning I’ve got a sore throat and a tickly cough. 😖
I’ve ordered a test.

@Nicknacky

Whoops I must have missed her post when she confirmed she was in England?

You like an argument don’t you

I don't think your post is misleading at all 🤷.

I've recently been through Covid, an I'm on the other side now. It started with a slightly sore throat. That came and went very quickly and some other symptoms followed.

I hope you.feel better soon, fingers crossed it's negative result for you.

@justleavemebe

I really hope that's sarcasm 🤞🏼

Hi op hope you get a negative test & feel better soon

Ignore the sarcastic remarks

Take care 🌸🌸

[quote Threelittlegins]@HerculesMuligan

The tension and anxiety radiates from your posts. Have you felt this level of anxiety since March?!

To be honest I feel more anxious about the responses than I do my test results.

Having people tell me I’m paranoid, I’m misleading, I’m driving up the cases.... 🙄[/quote]
I’m sorry for the vitriol aimed your way, OP. It’s probably not C19, but it’s not impossible.

The potential to pick up C19 outdoors is something that interests me. A good breeze supposedly dissipates it and ultraviolet light irradiates it in summer (less promptly in winter) but it’s still possible. Think back a few months to all those Republicans that were infected at Trump’s Rose Garden event — held entirely outdoors.

Out of an abundance of caution I’ve avoided walking the path along our beachfront, which has been absolutely heaving every time I drive past. Cases in my area are skyrocketing late into lockdown, just as they did last time.

From the article “Catching Coronavirus outside is rare but not impossible”:

Linsey Marr, a well-known expert on airborne virus transmission from Virginia Tech, told AFP that she recommends wearing masks outside if the area is crowded and "you will be passing by people frequently, say, more than one per minute as a guideline but not an absolute rule."

"When we walk by people outside, we might catch a whiff of their exhaled breath plume," she said. "Any single brief, passing exposure is low risk, but such exposures might add up over time."

"My advice follows the precautionary principle and the fact that wearing a mask does not harm," Marr added.

On restaurant patios, the group of scientists recommends keeping a safe distance between tables and wearing masks while not eating.

There are too many variables to calculate the exact risk on a sidewalk or in a park—it depends on the wind and the number of people but also the sun.

Ultraviolet rays deactivate the virus, but the speed at which they do so depends on the sun's intensity (from a few minutes to an hour).

medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-coronavirus-rare-impossible.html

I'm far too invested in this, just here for the result. Good luck OP!

Some of the responses to this thread are amazing, the idea that people like the op are the reason we are back in lockdown is my favourite

Hope the test comes back negative

I find runners disconcerting too at the moment! They are just not Covid-calming with their all their panting and barging past.

I find it irritating the amount of people who insist they have virtually no contact with the outside world so are at a loss as to how they became unwell, yet say things like they met a friend for a walk, bought a coffee, go to the park every day etc. Or they only see the children's grandparents who do their childcare, but they see both sets, who also see their other grandchildren and go about their lives as normal. Unless you have no contact with anyone ever you can hardly claim to be astounded as to how you caught a bug.

I hope you get better soon OP, but realise there is always a risk of contracting something, the best you can do is minimise the risk

@Throwntothewolves

I find it irritating the amount of people who insist they have virtually no contact with the outside world so are at a loss as to how they became unwell, yet say things like they met a friend for a walk, bought a coffee, go to the park every day etc. Or they only see the children's grandparents who do their childcare, but they see both sets, who also see their other grandchildren and go about their lives as normal. Unless you have no contact with anyone ever you can hardly claim to be astounded as to how you caught a bug.

I hope you get better soon OP, but realise there is always a risk of contracting something, the best you can do is minimise the risk

@Throwntothewolves

Going to the park every day (alone or with DH) is hardly having a lot of contact.

It’s like walking past people in the street!

You say minimise risk, so what do you suggest I minimise in the small amount of “risk” I’ve taken recently? Stay in doors and never leave?

I hardly see going for a walk and buying a takeaway coffee as high risk things to do.

What you’re saying is that there’s a risk every time we leave the house, yeah, I guess there is, which is why I choose to do things with the lowest risk.
Outdoors, socially distanced.

@DownWhichOfLate

Oh god. You’re one of them. You and your friend stood opposite sides of the path, forcing everyone to have to walk / run between you!

Don't be so mean.

OP is actually following the rules unlike most people.

OP, I hope you're ok and please let us know your result.

Take Care X

@DownWhichOfLate

Well, you tell me how people are supposed to get past you if you are on opposite sides of the path and they are going the other way?!

If I am on a walk with a friend we walk around 2m apart and if we see someone coming the other way we move so we are on the same side one roughly 2m apart behind the other. Those coming the other way can then pass. This is in the countryside on a wide path. I would not attempt to walk down my local high street with a friend at the current time.

I’m sorry you are getting a bashing here, I think your post title has set people off as I also read it that you had caught covid outside.

Like you the only thing we are doing is walking outside and having food delivered. I don’t wipe it down as we have a lot to put away, there’s 5 living here.

Since March I have had a few sore throats, headaches and occasional coughing, but I have suffered terrible hay fever / allergies this year, so have put them down to this.

did drink from a disposable coffee cup but sanitised my hands when I’d finished, washed hands when I got home.

You put your lips to the cup to drink, several times

@ForBlueSkies

Think back a few months to all those Republicans that were infected at Trump’s Rose Garden event — held entirely outdoors

They gathered indoors prior to Rose Garden event - there are a few photos of this though as it wasn’t the main event so it wasn’t the focus of what was shown in the media.

Ignore the shitty comments OP. Whether you've got Covid or not, it seems likely that you've picked up some sort of infection.
Irrelevant where from really. Hope you feel better soon

I get a one sided sore throat all the time. It is usually my tonsils playing up and comes to nothing.

@Threelittlegins

I don’t know anyone quite as cautious as you seem to be being it seems to me that you would have been extraordinarily unlucky to have caught Covid given what you’ve described.

I really doubt you have caught it from being outside OP. One thing I noticed when I was home during the first lockdown is that I get a sore throat at ovulation and just before my period. I googled it and it is a thing, so you never know, it could be something like that? Hope your test is negative

Would it be more possible that that server in cafe has a cold, she touches rim of coffee cup when handling, you drink from coffee cup. Colds and flu viruses last longer on surfaces than COVID-19.

I think that’s more likely than you picking something up outside in the fresh air. It’s more likely to be a cold.

I would be surprised if you’ve caught COVID. My understanding when I last checked is that the countries that aggressively contact trace have found exactly two cases of COVID caught outside so far, and one of those were two people chatting at opposite sides of a path for a prolonged period.

It’s worth mentioning that, although COVID is hard to catch outside, other viruses aren’t. So, it’s perfectly possible to catch the common cold from repeat visits to the park.

[quote Threelittlegins]@PrivateD00r

OP I was honestly on your side until you were so rude about the runners

I’m not trying to be rude about runners.

But as you will see from PP, I have been slated for distancing from my friend on a path that was wide enough for us to do so.

At no point did anyone ever have to ask us to move so they could pass. It was wide enough.
Yet runners still ran past me and who we’re definitely not 2m away.
And it’s not because my friend was at the other side of the path because other people were at the other side too.[/quote]
If you and your friend were on opposite sides of the path for runners to pass and stay 2m from both of you the path would need to be at least 4m wide, more really when you include the width of the people.

It’s no wonder runners are closer than 2m to you. You’ve not left them any room to socially distance because you and your friend have spread out across the whole path.

Threelittlegins I apologise for coming across harshly, in my defence it was the middle of the night and I was tired! I think you're being very sensible, but the point I was trying to make is that unless there is zero contact with the outside world then there's always a small chance of catching something, including Covid, so it shouldn't be astonishing if you do.

The point I made about grandparents was because I've heard this sort of thing from lots people who genuinely can't believe they got ill, while mixing with several people, sometimes in eachothers houses.

I hope you get better soon, and that it isn't Covid.

I'm very bemused as to all the posters saying it's not covid, you'll have picked up another virus. As if they are all lingering around in some different way. If you're taking precautions against covid you're taking precautions against all viruses.

@unchienandalusia - you need to do some reading then! Different viruses have different common modes of transmission. Some are small, light and aerosolised so they can be caught even outside much more easily than covid (e.g. common cold, measles); some are robust and last a long time so fomite risk from touching surfaces is common (e.g. norovirus, rotavirus), some are only transmissible from certain bodily fluids (e.g. HIV). People are actually just being specific with OP.