Testing for the home straight

Our world today

It could be easy to be angry and disillusioned with the world when viewing the inconveniences, the restrictions, the limitations, and the encumbrances that present with this global pandemic. Without heaping opprobrium on any, what has been unleashed on us has had unimaginable consequences and brought catastrophic losses.

All this is exacerbated by inefficiencies and incompetence in policies, systems, planning, execution and governments, leaving us the people absorbing the absolutely dire consequences.

For instance, it is not even 9:00AM and I have found myself in a 60-deep queue trying to meet a stringent requirement on the pain of a hefty fine to be able to return home. I hate officialdom, but here we are, desperately trying to maintain social distancing and keeping our peace in the face of the untenable.

Organised in a way

Lancet Laboratories is making a wad, with their byline of ‘Key to diagnostic excellence’ they probably cannot be faulted for their diagnostic abilities, their organisational acumen however leaves much to be desired.

Two hours after I arrived, I was called into a testing room, my details recorded on the swab kit before the nurse donned a pair of disposable gloves and then proceeded to tickle my brain through my nostril, twisting and turning the swab to find the extent of my tolerance and with no consideration for my discomfort. It is probable I was being tested for endurance instead.

For it said

I held my breath all the while and when she had fulfilled her sadistic pleasure, pulling out the swab, I let out a gasp. Later, I was called in to pay up and then arrange for getting my test result with a turnaround between 24 to 48 hours.

Some 5 and a half hours later, I received my result, the app giving a more chemical prognosis stating that “SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid was not detected by means of a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.” I will be back there tomorrow to collect the stamped and signed certificate. The joys of travel have become a matter of compartmentalisation, perspective, and a sense of just being unflappable.