DUBAI: An overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who had been staying home to avoid being infected with the coronavirus, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Jullian Marimla, video editor, said he still does not know how he got the virus.
“We do not have any idea. It could have been from anywhere. We had a hunch we got it from a clinic where my girlfriend had her check-up.
“Then again, it could have also been from take-aways and food deliveries or groceries. It’s impossible to really tell,” Marimla told Rappler.
“Nowadays kasi, halos ang mga tao po ay asymptomatic na. You could not tell who has the virus,” he said.
Fever
Marimla started to have fever that went on and off around the second week of April – right in the midst of the government’s 24-hour “sterilization” drive in Dubai, when streets were empty and movements of people were restricted except for emergency purposes and essential needs.
“Lagnat lang na di na-aalis,” said the 24-year-old Marimla, who was born and raised in Dubai and whose family hails from Angeles City in Pampanga.
“I was extremely scared,” he said of the goosebumps he had after testing positive for COVID-19. The full lockdown in the city started April 4 and the surreal emptiness added to the apocalyptic eeriness of it all.
“When I heard about the result, all I could think of was whether I would survive this, how am I going to support my family? What will happen to me now?
“It was mixed emotions, actually,” he said.
Weak and tired
Marimla said he would feel weak and tired during the day with muscle pain around his eyes.
“At nights, my temperature would spike to 39 degrees. Dry coughs came after a few days and it eventually worsened to the point that I was having difficulty breathing and I could not speak properly,” he recalls.
On April 19th, the third consecutive day that he was having fever, Marimla said he and a close friend finally went to a hospital for a check-up and test.
He said he was admitted at midnight of April 22 and stayed in the hospital for 10 days.
Treatment
Marimla said he was thankful he did not end up at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
“The moment I was admitted, naka-oxygen support na ako,” he said.
“Then they gave me paracetamol for my fever, and anti-biotics and anti-virals through IV because they found out that the virus has gone down to my lungs and I have already contracted pneumonia,” Marimla further shared.
He said the medical staff took his blood samples every day; it was swab tests every two to three days, he added.
Marimla was discharged in the morning of May 3.
Much better now
Marimla said he feels much better these days “though there is still coughing that the doctors said would be the last to go away.”
His ordeal can be traumatic and he advised everyone to be “cautious, really be extra careful and don’t take it lightly.”
“Coronavirus is scary. You will never know what is happening or when it got you. Kalma lang,” he said.
“It’s scary,” Marimla added, “but keep telling yourself you’ll surpass this.”
“Don’t let anxiety and fear eat you up.”
Equally important, he said, is to keep boosting your immune system.
“It’s all you have. If down yung resistensya mo, malalagay ka talaga sa alanganin,” Marimla said.
The Daily Bread 