After New Year’s Eve parties, families report contaminated by Covid

Year-end celebrations were affected by Covid-19 and also became responsible for spreading the disease virus among family members.

There was a family with infected people just before Christmas that was forced to cancel the celebration. Or, still, who discovered the infection after family reunions and had to revise plans for the New Year. And there was also the case of someone who celebrated New Year’s Eve and, after the party, began to feel the first symptoms of infection.

According to information from Panel SA, the number of positive pharmacy tests jumped from 524 on December 1st, when 10,000 tests were taken, to 5,334 on December 29, when there were 31,332 tests — equivalent to 5% and 17 % of the total, respectively.

“I thought it was going to pass unharmed, but it’s very strong, many people are getting it,” says housewife Cláudia Mortari Schmidt, 58. She, who lives in Curitiba, went to eat pizza at a relative’s house after Christmas. The next day, he received news that one of the people present had been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Schmidt was already a little tired, but he attributed it to the fact that his grandchildren were staying at his house. When he heard the news, he went for the test and discovered, on December 31, that he was also with Covid-19 — in addition to her, two daughters-in-law and a son also tested positive for the virus.

“When I arrived at the pharmacy, I noticed that there was a line to make an appointment,” she says. Despite the scare, Schmidt and his family are recovering well, with mild symptoms such as fever and a stuffy nose.

She has avoided going out of the house since the beginning of the pandemic and had not planned to go to any big parties at New Year. Initially, he would spend the New Year at his son’s house, however, after the positive result for Covid-19, the plans changed.

With the two doses of the vaccine, the matriarch of the family says she is recovering well from the virus and believes that the mild picture is related to the immunizing agent. Now, wait for the end of isolation and complete recovery to receive the booster dose.

Publicist Gabriela Rodrigues, 31, also had to review the year-end plans. She and her girlfriend had planned their first trip as a couple outside of São Paulo, but the two were infected by Covid-19 shortly before leaving for Salvador for a two-week rest.

On the eve of the positive result for Covid-19, it was his girlfriend’s birthday and they met with ten other people at Parque Augusta, in the city of São Paulo. With the result in hand, they had to notify those present.

“It was a complicated episode, it’s very boring to send a message to whoever you have contact. We feel very guilty because we know the importance of Christmas for many people,” she says. “But we tell everyone.”

In the end, Rodrigues, his girlfriend and mother-in-law tested positive for Covid-19. The three spent the ten days of isolation together and Christmas dinner was just between them. “We were very upset. We met during the pandemic and we isolated ourselves a lot. When we met other people, we would spend 20 days without seeing each other. The only time we were going to travel, this happened,” he says.

Now, they are trying to control the expectation that there is still no new date for the long-awaited trip. “It will come when it has to,” says Rodrigues.

Soteropolitana, veterinarian Tatiana Albuquerque, 52, experienced a similar case in her home. The daughter who lives in São Paulo and went to visit her family for the festivities arrived in her hometown with symptoms. He did a test right after landing and was with the Covid-19.

Albuquerque canceled the family dinner and stayed with her daughter at the beach house alone. “I stayed with her the whole time, I didn’t let go”, says she, who wore a mask and alcohol gel all day and was not infected. Despite having spent Christmas cloistered with her daughter, she reports that she was relieved to be close to the young woman.

“I was able to monitor her closely, my neighbor is an infectious disease specialist and he managed to see her. We provided her with good nutrition and she had an excellent recovery”, says the mother.

Physician Renato Kfouri, director of SBIm (Brazilian Society of Immunizations), says he noticed the high number of Covid-19 cases in December. He estimates that in November he diagnosed 12 patients with the virus. In the last few weeks of the year, he went on to diagnose 12 patients with Covid-19 daily.

“Many people have Covid-19. This is evident, but these are mild cases, I haven’t had hospitalization yet”, says Kfouri, who was also infected at home at the end of the year and is now about to complete the period of social isolation .

The doctor says that anyone who has had contact with people with Covid-19 and remains asymptomatic should get tested between 5-7 days after the last contact. For those who are symptomatic, there is no need to wait and you can now perform the test.

In Brazil, infected with the virus must stay isolated for ten days and, after this period, they can perform the rapid test again. “There is no need to redo it. But, to find out if the individual is still transmitting, the antigen test is very good. The PCR, as it is a very sensitive test, can be positive for weeks, but the person is no longer transmitting the virus “explains Kfouri.

For him, the main cause of high cases of Covid-19 is the omicron variant. “If we were at another time, I don’t know if it would be very different. Crowds can help prevent high cases, but we were doing very similar things all November and the number of infected did not rise”, says the doctor.

Even so, he warns that the moment calls for caution. Therefore, with the rise in Covid-19 cases, major events and agglomerations should be avoided to reduce the worsening of the current scenario.