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.

It's probably the usual winter cold. Don't worry about it.

@ssd

Very misleading thread title. I'd ask mn to change it.

I asked a question...

My titles is “Caught Covid outside?”

I haven’t said “I have caught Covid outside”

Paranoia, it's just a cold. When's your test?

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants

There are so many ways in the the little you've described, that you could have caught Covid.

It's much more likely to be a cold though.

Take care
Let us know how you go.

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants

Do you mean there are so many ways I could’ve caught it or so many ways I couldn’t have?

I also think you should ask for the thread title to be changed.

There is huge anxiety on MN about cv19 at the moment, and I also read your title as you saying that you've got covid and the only place that you can have caught it is outside.

Hope that you feel better soon.

@myhobbyisouting

Paranoia, it's just a cold. When's your test?

@myhobbyisouting

I hardly think it’s fair to say it’s paranoia!

If I posted to say I have a cough but I’m not getting tested as I’ve only been outside, then people would tell me I’m irresponsible!!

It’s a home test. It’s arriving tomorrow!

🙄

OP I've been questioning the same as I've developed a really bad sore throat and chest and every now and again a tickly cough. I've already had 2 tests previously (negative) so don't really want to have another unless absolutely obvious. The thing is we are the same. I home ed my daughter and husband works alone or outside. I do have my 5 year old gs after school but there's been no cases in his school, apart from chicken pox which he caught. I would be baffled as to where I caught it from xx

Covid could have been on the disposable coffee cup you lifted up to face and breathed it in with your nose.

I don't think a sore throat and a tickly cough (unless prolonged and pronounced) is really a sign of Covid, or at least, it is also the sign of a cold, which is more easily transmitted I think than Covid. I have had two colds this winter, despite handwashing and so forth, but no Covid. Sore throat on and off for months, but no Covid.

Do you have anyone else in the house or is it just you and your baby?

I Aldi have a sore throat but don’t think for a moment I have covid. I think I’m run down and have a sore throat.

I honestly think you need to stop catastrophising and wait for you (negative) test result to come back.

*also

@Poppingnostopping

I don't think a sore throat and a tickly cough (unless prolonged and pronounced) is really a sign of Covid, or at least, it is also the sign of a cold, which is more easily transmitted I think than Covid. I have had two colds this winter, despite handwashing and so forth, but no Covid. Sore throat on and off for months, but no Covid.

Do you have anyone else in the house or is it just you and your baby?

@Poppingnostopping

DH. He works from home.

Only place he’s been is for walks with me.

Sorry, you said your husband is at home all the time.

I think it's unlikely but not impossible you have got Covid. It's more likely if you have got it that you and your friend were close enough to transmit droplets than you got it off a coffee cup. 2 metres isn't a magic distance, it's about harm minimisation not complete safety.

Hope your test is negative, it sounds likely that it will be.

@TheRubyRedshoes

Covid could have been on the disposable coffee cup you lifted up to face and breathed it in with your nose.

@TheRubyRedshoes

Perhaps. My friend also had a coffee and she’s fine.

It's much more likely to be a cold, those viruses are smaller so they can spread better in the air. Still, you'll have a test and that will tell you.

It's unlikely that you kept 2m from your friend during your walk either, I don't think I've seen anyone actually do that while out walking with a friend. It's lower risk outside, but rather than have you think you've taken precautions that you haven't - have you measured out on the floor how far 2m actually is?

Caught Covid outside? No, you didn't.

how close were you to your friend,

What I don't understand is why, if we are all following the rules, people are still catching colds? (The common cold is a corona virus). It would be interesting to know what the incidence of the common cold actually is atm.

Sore throats and tickly coughs are not Covid symptoms. You probably have a cold and shouldn't have ordered a test

i have had a cold a couple of times this year, dreadful cough currently, so tickly

It'll be interesting to see what your result is OP, purely as you're probably one of a minority who has been really really careful.

I sometimes get sore throats and coughs from silent acid reflux.

@MRex

It's much more likely to be a cold, those viruses are smaller so they can spread better in the air. Still, you'll have a test and that will tell you.

It's unlikely that you kept 2m from your friend during your walk either, I don't think I've seen anyone actually do that while out walking with a friend. It's lower risk outside, but rather than have you think you've taken precautions that you haven't - have you measured out on the floor how far 2m actually is?

@MRex

I can assure you that I was 2m the whole time!

Yes, I know how far it is. My husband works in design and we have a 2m ruler at home.

I’m anxious about Covid so I’d never risk getting close to my friend.

The area was plenty big enough to distance.

It was busy and I was probably closer to passers by than I was my friend.

I had the exact same last week sore throat and a dry tickly cough, turned out it was a viral throat infection. Still ordered a covid test but it came back negative, ended up going doctors after the results as I'm pregnant and didn't seem to be shifting it.

Doctor said sore throats are making the rounds atm but I did the right thing getting covid checked because of the cough!

"I’m anxious about Covid so I’d never risk getting close to my friend."

Hence the paranoia. Analysis of your symptoms etc. In normal times you'd just think, oh I've got a bit of a cold