Well, major drama today. F got pinged yesterday as having had a high risk contact last week, went for a test and was told today that he had tested positive for COVID. So I immediately went and got myself tested at the hospital in Ixelles, finished off the undelegatable stuff at work and came home. He has no symptoms, Anne and I have no symptoms, but you have to do what the rules say.

What exactly the rules say is not completely clear – the chap who I spoke to on the national tracing line said that since I am double-Pfizered, I could leave quarantine if I get a negative test result; Anne didn’t get the same information, but did not ask the same question. But what is clear is that we have to maintain household quarantine for the time being.

It’s actually a little surprising that it has taken this long to strike so close to home. Also a bit surprising that it was F rather than me that provided the first positive test in the household, given that I see such a wide variety of people (but maybe students are not as careful as my professional contacts).

Anyway, it is what it is. Even being asymptomatically COVID-positive would be a real pain in the neck; we had a fun-packed wedding anniversary trip planned for the weekend, and then I have a planned work trip next week and a major work event on Thursday 7th. I would bet that the fact that we’re all double-vaxxed means that F is less infectious and we are less susceptible. But I’ll know for sure tomorrow. (Or sooner if I start to go down with the symptoms, but I think that would have happened by now.)

When I was planning this post this morning, I was intending to cheerily speculate that I’ll finish this series when all restrictions are lifted in Belgium, which should be some time in October from what I read in the papers. But today has reminded me that it may be a long time before all of this is over.

I’m friends-locking this for the moment, so if you happen to see it please don’t make public comment until I have made it public again. Thank you!

Edited to add: My negative test came through this evening. Whew!