As winter gets colder, the sound of coughing and sniffling gets louder. Typically, the culprit is the common cold or the flu, but this year, COVID-19 is once again on the rise.
According to CBC and New Brunswick’s most recent Respiratory Watch, eight people died from the virus, while 48 were hospitalized – four of which required intensive care – just in the first week of January. The total number of new cases was 142.
Although the era of strict restrictions and lockdowns is over, COVID-19 is becoming a part of the regular rotation of illnesses and is the reason why many missed out on the holidays.
“The day we were decorating our tree was the day that my brother started feeling badly,” said third-year St. Thomas student Sarah Tapley. “So we were like halfway through decorating the tree and then the next day all the rest of us tested positive.”
Two weeks before Christmas, Tapley’s run-in with COVID-19 began. First, she and her brother tested positive, after experiencing common symptoms such as a bad sore throat and headache. Then followed the rest of her family.
“At first I had the most energy and I was like, ‘oh, maybe this isn’t gonna hit me that hard,’” she said. “And then a couple days into it, I started getting a really bad sore throat and it just kept getting worse.”
Many of the Tapleys’ loved Christmas traditions had to be put on the backburner as the family nursed their health. Although the initial rise of COVID-19 in 2020 took away some of their bigger Christmas family gatherings – which have not made a comeback – simple staples like decorating the tree, holiday baking and spontaneous family visits were halted this year.
“Once I finally got my energy back we were trying to catch up on all the stuff that we hadn’t done already. So I was making Christmas cookies frantically on Christmas Eve trying to have something to be like, ‘oh, like it’s kind of Christmas.’”
“We were all just miserable, so we weren’t really in the mood.”
Tapley’s illness lasted two weeks, persisting through exam season and the days before Christmas. Her condition worsened and she had to take a trip to the Oromocto Public Hospital emergency room, where she waited for over six hours to be seen.
Aside from missing Christmas celebrations, Tapley missed exam week due to her illness and needed to ask for extensions on many of her final assignments, adding even more stress to her holiday break.
“I couldn’t focus on the assignments, and because of the sore throat, it would wake me up in the middle of the night because it hurt so bad,” she said. “I was scheduling out my pain medication so that I could take the max amount per day.”
Tapley said her experience with COVID-19 and the recent rise of the virus in New Brunswick has made her more cautious on campus — even more than the last two years.
“When you’re sitting next to somebody in a class and you’re paying attention and then you hear a really aggressive, painful sounding cough, it’s like, ‘oh, that doesn’t feel safe.’”
Aside from her increased caution on campus, Tapley also recognizes the need for healthier student habits — something many students may struggle with.
“Everybody’s inside and everybody’s run down from school,” she said. “I was pulling all these late nights getting assignments done. I was overtired and wasn’t taking care of myself.”
“It was just totally not how you want to go into the holiday season.”
