Samena

Age at interview: 32

Brief Outline:

Ethnicity: Pakistani 
Background: Samena is 32 years old and is Pakistani. She is married and has two children.  Samena felt overwhelmed and frustrated during the first lockdown but didn’t catch Covid until February 2021. She feels that guidance around testing has been easy to follow, but rarer symptoms need to be discussed more.

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Samena was on holiday abroad in late January 2020 and her first experience of the pandemic was seeing people wearing masks in the airport, which she found quite frightening. When Samena and her family arrived home, her sister told them that the lockdown was starting in a few days’ time, which Samena found frustrating and overwhelming. She was surprised that the shelves at the local shops were all empty.
 
Samena felt “happy and grateful nobody [she] knew had caught it” but found that the second wave was a “different story” and “by far was the worst”. In February 2021, Samena’s husband began feeling unwell and developed aches, as well as feeling “hot inside” without a high temperature. Samena had felt the same way but thought it was a cold until their son developed a fever. After a doctor suggested they take a Covid test, Samena was shocked to find that she tested positive.
 
Although Samena and her husband felt wiped out by Covid, they were more worried about her parents, as Samena had been acting as a carer for them when her dad had been told to shield. Despite trying to keep her distance, Samena’s “worst nightmare” came true when her mum tested positive for Covid and was hospitalised. The family’s priorities shifted away from Samena’s dad when her mum was admitted, but shifted again when her mum returned home and her dad was hospitalised. Both of Samena’s parents had been recently vaccinated, but their encounters with Covid haven’t stopped Samena from wanting to receive the vaccine.
 
As her husband works as a self-employed taxi driver, Samena felt some financial strain during the pandemic. She feels that the sum given to self-employed people wasn’t enough as it would only last a month.
 
Samena found the testing process to be “simple and easy to follow” and thinks that people are afraid of getting tested because they may have to isolate, as well as worrying that they’re wasting everyone’s time. Samena would encourage people to get tested because it’s so quick, and stresses its importance because not everyone has the “three main” symptoms.

 

In mid-March 2020 Samena changed flights in Dubai on her way back from Pakistan. She noticed everyone was wearing a mask.

We flew back on I believe, I can’t remember the date but I remember flying back to the UK on the, the Saturday and I remember everywhere in Dubai airports everybody just wearing masks, at this point it wasn’t, it wasn’t mandatory to wear masks and it was the first time really, you know, quite frightened everybody to see, you know, what was going on. I remember, getting from Pakistan I remember coming in to Dubai airport and everything was just shut, all shops, things were all closed there was a few sort of restaurant’s takeaways, everything else was just completely, you know, closed. Everybody was walking about with masks so at that point we said okay something has, it’s quite serious, you know, everything that was going on because in Pakistan at that point it wasn’t anything major you know, it was talked about it was, I don’t think even at that point there was many cases in Pakistan if there was any.

Samena’s husband, a taxi driver, struggled to find customers during lockdown.

I don’t work. I’ve got two young kids so that took a big, it was a big strain on our family and obviously work wise we did not know what was going on you know, taxis were obviously essential so they were allowed to continue to work but it was absolutely dead nobody was taking any taxis anywhere at all during the day or not so me and my husband we’d be working right through the nights and mornings just everything crazy just trying to get a few customers in like to get, you know, get the money, at that point the furlough wasn’t even completely established with what was going on with money and if self-employed people would get anything.

Samena called a government helpline to check whether she was allowed to care for her parents.

I lived a couple of doors down so that would be even closer, we lived in the city centre before, it was, you know, purely for that fact that we could look after them because my mum was really struggling to look after my dad, she’s got really bad arthritis as well. So I was like their official carer and I had to phone up the, you know, the, you know, the government helpline to find out can I go and visit and I was told I can go in and help, you know, wearing a mask I could drop off their shopping for them and I can go in and, you know, help them cook or clean but just keep my two meter distance which was what I was trying to do.

Samena was ‘extra careful’ about Covid transmission whenever she visited her parents’ house but still passed Covid on to them.

Unfortunately my mum ending up catching it from me. At the time that I didn’t even know that I had it and my husband was obviously doing their shopping for them so we were dropping off the bags and, you know we, we just struggled to try and figure out what we’d done and, you know, how they managed to catch it, so we’d obviously been at the house and touched something or something’s happened and that’s how they’ve ended up catching it. So that was a really, you know, scary time because my mum was actually hospitalised due to it because of, you know, she has you know, she got a really bad sort of chest infection with it and then my dad caught it from my mum. So that was, that was my biggest fear through this pandemic was, you know, my mum and dad, you know, but thankfully, you know, they both recovered, both had to go into hospital but thankfully they both recovered.

Samena cooked and cleaned for her parents who were shielding due to health problems. She was terrified when her mum went to hospital.

So I think when we found out we’d tested positive my initial thought wasn’t even about myself or even my husband I think my mind went straight to my mum and dad and I thought I’d been meeting my mum and dad and having to go in and, you know, clean up for them or cook for them I was absolutely terrified what’s gonna happen and my mum kept reassuring me that she was absolutely fine, she came out with symptoms a day or two afterwards and it was that fear that through the whole pandemic I was terrified of that moment and that moment had to come true. So I think it was my worst nightmare was actually happening in front of me and then when she got taken into hospital and they kept, she was kept in that again was absolutely frightening for me because you hear stories of people catching it and when they go into hospital they just never return.

Samena received contradictory advice about whether she and her husband should get tested.

The only thing I would say is what I felt was that everybody’s so focussed on the main three symptoms that they, they, because even me at the initial got told don’t get, you don’t need to get tested if you’ve not got the main three symptoms which is why it stopped me and my husband getting tested. Had the doctor not said get yourself tested before I give you antibiotics we would never have gone and thought this was Covid and got ourselves tested. You can only imagine my husband being a taxi driver how many people he would have picked up and been in contact with, you know, some are elderly, some are, you know, got other health conditions and it could have been really critical for them that’s my main thing. I would say that, you know, I mean I don’t know why it’s, maybe it’s, I don’t really know why they focus so much on the three symptoms when you look at my story look at my parents, look at me, look at my husband none of us had any of the three symptoms.

Samena always encouraged people to test, even if it might result in them having to isolate.

People are so terrified of getting tested because of the impact of having to self-isolate for ten days and the entire family they avoid it at every cost and I know that from talking to people, picking up people’s nerves if they’re not feeling well, you know, get yourself tested, oh no I don’t have the main symptoms so I don’t think, you know, I have, don’t want to go and, you know, waste their time and do it. I said “look you’re not wasting anyone’s time, I’ve been through it I know we would never thought this as Covid so just please get yourself tested this moment you start feeling unwell, you’re feeling, you have a sore throat, you’ve got sore eyes, you’ve got, even if it’s not coughing and you’ve not got a temperature if you’re feeling unwell and you know this is not a cold, you can tell with your body, you can tell this is different a lot, this is feeling, you know, not feeling well, you’re lethargic, you’ve got aches and pains in your whole body, just get yourself tested.”

Samena and her husband couldn’t get any support with childcare while they were ill, so took it in turns to care for their children.

I couldn’t do anything you can’t have anybody in, I couldn’t send my kids to my sisters for example to look after because obviously, they are positive. I can’t be sending my kids out I couldn’t have anybody come in and help me, so we just, me and my husband had to take it in shifts and just get through it really.