University student leader Barbara Bungewa is urging fellow students and others to get the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to protect themselves, after she tested positive and is now recovering in an isolation ward.
When my test result showed Covid-19 positive, I forced a smile and talked confidently.
But when I walked out of the clinic, I started crying.
Being away from my dad and my younger siblings while battling the Covid-19 alone is not easy. But I had to be strong for me and for them.
Bungewa, 22, the vice-president of the University of Goroka student representative council, was one of the 13 people who tested positive last week at the university and had been in isolation since.
She told The National yesterday that it was unbearable lying in her cubicle, listening to other patients coughing and struggling to breathe.
She is advising fellow students and the general public to get vaccinated and follow public health safety measures to avoid getting infected.
Bungewa wants to share her experience publicly so that the 98 per cent of the people still not vaccinated around the country can realize the severity of the Covid-19.
Students and members of the public are not taking the Covid-19 protocols seriously, so I decided to inform everyone that the Covid-19 is real and people are suffering from it.
Please everyone, adhere to the Covid-19 protocols and get vaccinated to protect yourself.
Bungewa had been sick for two weeks before displaying symptoms of the Covid-19 including the shortness of breath and heartburn last Friday night.
I forced myself to be strong but the next day (Saturday), it got worse.
So I was taken to the university clinic where I got treated and tested for the Covid-19.
After I was tested positive, they had to isolate me with the other staff and students who had tested positive earlier.
Bungewa, a third-year political science student, said the university clinic could not accommodate all the positive cases. So they had to be isolated in an old dormitory.
The top floor is where they keep us (isolated), while the ground floor is being used as a clinic.
I can’t say how many patients are in the building but every day, I can hear patients being moved in and out, some struggling to breathe and are coughing.
For the past five days, she had been injected with antibiotics, plus IV (intravenous) and oral painkillers.
I was told by the nurses that the oxygen cylinders brought in were to be used by patients who are having difficulty in breathing.
I am relying on the injection and medicines.