TL;DR: what are we supposed to do in Taiwan if we feel sick and we’re scared we’ve caught Covid-19?
Not asking for a friend, not asking for present-self, but possibly for future-self: so I come down with a cold. Or a fever. And I’m at home. Of course I want to call in sick - but then what? Where can I go for a Covid-19 test to figure out “Ok, it’s just a cold”, or “Uh oh.” South Korea’s got those drive-through places - what does Taiwan have? Is the only testing at a hospital? Or are there other places?
Best-case, I go get tested, they tell me, “Nope, just a cold”, and I go home and avoid work for a few days. Middle-case, they tell me, “Oo, jackpot!”, but it’s a mild case and I ride it out at home, and possibly send my wife to stay with her family for a couple of weeks. Worse-case I assume is hospitalization. But what’s the procedure for this here in Taiwan? How can I get myself one of those tests? Are there special Plague Taxis that I sure hope don’t look like hearses that I should call?
(Off-topic: discourse is weird. It’s telling me “Your topic is similar to … What decade was the best musical decade in the last 60 years”. How is it coming up with that?!)
I’ve been to the hospital this month for 2x herniated discs. I’m not sure how it works in Taipei, but in Yilan if you show up at the hospital you don’t have to worry about not knowing what to do.
a) No insurance card = can’t enter
b) Check the temperature; fever = there’s a doctor waiting to take you away, no fever = you can enter
c) before setting foot inside there’s an insurance card check for travel history: you’ve been abroad recently = there’s a doctor waiting to take you away, no travel history = you can now enter the hospital
d) In this area they have some doctors in surgical gear. If your insurance card doesn’t show that you have a booked appointment they’ll ask you the reason of the visit. Any suspicious symptoms = a trip with the doc
I’ve been in a hospital room for 3 days with 2 herniated discs, no fever, no cough, and within the first 8 hours I lost the count of how many times I’ve been asked:“Have you been abroad recently?” and:“Any trouble breathing?”. My temperature during the day was checked non stop. I had to call the ambulance because I couldn’t stand up and the medical staff didn’t care about my injury, they checked my temperature and asked if I had been abroad recently, then later, after they informed the hospital I had no exposure/symptoms of the flying aids, they started asking me about the back injury. As soon as I arrived in the ER, the conversation in Chinese was the following:
“What happened?”
“I injured my back this morning, I can’t stand up and I have trouble mov…”
“HAVE YOU BEEN ABROAD RECENTLY, DO YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE BREATHING”
At least in Yilan the last thing I have to worry about is not knowing what to do/where to go, they have everything sorted out.
The CDC guidelines won’t tell you this, but I am pretty sure the first order of affairs is to post about your plight on the forum and have everyone press F accordingly.
They kept me there because the doc wanted to see how I was recovering in order to evaluate whether I needed surgery or not. On the second day I was able to lift my legs 45 degrees so the doc said:“You don’t need surgery, only rest. Go back home tomorrow because it’s not a good period to stay in hospitals”. I spent the next 10 days or so at home, mostly on the ground, and the back recovered pretty well. They gave me a ton of medications and that probably helped, but the thing that hit me the most was their focus on the corona virus and not wanting people staying there any longer than necessary.
Now I have 3 months of medications and rehab in front of me, but at least i don’t have flying aids yet.
This is going to be fun. Every time you go in for rehab, you get to go through the whole “HAVE YOU BEEN ABROAD RECENTLY, DO YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE BREATHING” routine all over again. I hope they gave you the good meds.
I think everybody else already gave you good scoop.
This Taiwan CDC Q&A question discusses contact (that’s as close as I’ve been able to come to an answer so far), but it seems to mention what to do about symptoms as well. Anyway, I’ll just throw this in here for good measure, and if it causes any confusion, you can just blow it off:*
A Google Translate translation of the above:
*The expression “blow it off” has nothing to do with fellatio; it’s a boomerism that can mean “Disregard it,” “Forget about it,” or in the case of tasks or obligations, “Shirk it,” “Don’t do it,” etc.
One more note. I went to Far Eastern Memorial in Banqiao this morning, and there was a short line outside, and someone gave us forms on small sheets of paper as we proceeded through the line. I couldn’t read the Chinese, but inside the hospital my doctor’s nurse seemed to be asking me the questions that were on the form. The questions were pretty much what’s in Question 14, above. I don’t know about the exact wording on the form, but my doctor’s nurse asked me if I had a cough or fever, in addition to asking questions about contacts and so on.
I was thinking about translating a post by a Mexican guy who got himself checked for COVID-19 since he had traveled abroad and had a cough/fever/symptoms. It is a good first hand account.
He called the 1922 number and described his situation.
He was told to go to XXX, a nearby hospital with testing and negative pressure room capabilities.
When he arrived, they were expecting him, he was on a short list and was escorted by the guard towards further testing.
I bent forward and to my left to open a window, two discs tried to leave my spine in response to my action. If now you have a confused expression on your face, fear not: every doctor and nurse to whom I described the situation probably had the same expression.
Had I been run over by an Ahma I would be proud to wear that badge of honor, but it was not the case. Next time, brother…
