Yes, it's negative: a patient's diary at COVID-19 isolation facility in Hong Kong

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a medical staff member disinfecting a community isolation facility in south China's Hong Kong, March 13, 2022. (Xinhua)

Editor's note: China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been fighting its worst wave of COVID-19 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic. A mainland-aided community isolation facility (CIF) located in Tsing Yi started admitting its first batch of COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong on March 3. The facility, completed within just one week, is capable of accommodating about 3,900 asymptomatic or mildly ill patients.

A resident in Hong Kong hospitalized at the facility presents the first-person experience of how he, along with his new neighbors, feels at the facility.

HONG KONG, March 14 (Xinhua) -- On the sixth day of my stay at the Tsing Yi facility, my self-test result finally turned negative. This is the most encouraging news for me over the past few days, and is also a relief to the doctors I consulted for treatment.

Based on my personal experience, I would like to share some tips on COVID-19 recovery.

First, both Chinese and Western medicine worked in my treatment. On the second night at Tsing Yi facility, I started to develop COVID-19 symptoms. After making a phone call to the medical consultation hotline provided by the Hospital Authority to patients at the CIFs, I received a call back the next morning from a private doctor, who prescribed paracetamol, chlorphenamine and throat lozenges for me. That night, these medicines were delivered to my room.

I also brought some Lianhua Qingwen capsules, a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used to treat COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, with me to the isolation facility. After obtaining doctor's advice from a free online consultation service offered by the School of Chinese Medicine at the Hong Kong Baptist University, I took the capsules every day.

Second, food is important. The Tsing Yi facility provides three meals per day of good quality, and ensures that we eat enough protein at lunch and dinner. My neighbors and I also asked for extra food. Oranges and other fruits are provided from time to time to help us get vitamins. I also brought yoghurts to the facility.

Third, getting more rest is crucial to recovery. It is actually our own immune system that is playing the major part in defeating the virus. Vaccines, food and medication are only helping the immune system work better. Thanks to the good sound proofing of the rooms at the Tsing Yi facility, I could barely hear any noise and slept very well over the past days.

Remember the boy next door from the last diary? He told me he didn't even sleep so well at home as he did here at the Tsing Yi facility.

According to the HKSAR government, if I test negative using rapid antigen test kits on the sixth and seventh days, I can be discharged from the Tsing Yi facility.

The good news keeps coming: I heard from the staff that the number of people leaving the facility has risen from just more than 100 per day to over 200 per day in the last week.

Tonight, I think I will get a good night's sleep again, and tomorrow, I hope to get another negative test result and go home. 

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows medical staff members working at a community isolation facility in south China's Hong Kong, March 12, 2022. (Xinhua)

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a medical staff member distributing fruits at a community isolation facility in south China's Hong Kong, March 12, 2022. (Xinhua)

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows medical staff members working at a community isolation facility in south China's Hong Kong, March 12, 2022. (Xinhua)

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a medical staff member distributing fruits at a community isolation facility in south China's Hong Kong, March 12, 2022. (Xinhua)