A nippy and incident-free December vacation with family in Rajasthan to bring in the new year, turned nightmarish for publicity professional Arunima, once she returned to Delhi earlier this month. Barely two days later, her father started showing COVID-19 symptoms. Since he was averse to getting tested—mostly out of fear of being quarantined—she decided to buy the self-test Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kit available at the local chemist. A first for her as well, she remembers following the instruction manual on the product pack to the tee, including downloading the app, feeding in her father’s details, and taking a photo of the test result, which revealed he was positive in 15 minutes. 

To be doubly sure, Arunima, who wishes to be identified only by her first name for this story, also got an RT-PCR test done, which only confirmed the diagnosis. By the next day, the entire family, including her mother and brother, had begun experiencing mild symptoms. Meanwhile, her father’s worst fears came true, when the local municipal body, on seeing the RT-PCR results, called home, advising that he be taken to a quarantine centre, as he was 69 and had comorbidities. “My physician told us that he could home quarantine; I conveyed that to the authorities,” she shares. “But, there was so much panic and chaos at home, that I didn’t bother entering everyone’s details on the app; we just wanted to know if we were positive, went ahead and did the tests.”