40 days in isolation: Covid-19 patient in S'pore continued to test positive despite symptoms subsiding

With Singapore in full circuit breaker mode, many of us are desperately finding new ways to combat cabin fever — from flexing our cooking skills to attending virtual concerts.

Now imagine being stuck in a room with patchy Wi-Fi, not knowing when you'll get out.

Until recently, that was the life of Covid-19 patient Charles Pignal, who spent almost 40 days in isolation before finally being allowed to return home.

The 42-year-old French national, who is based in Singapore, was given the all-clear after testing negative for the virus twice on April 12.

This came after a full month of positive tests despite feeling "super healthy", he said on Instagram, where he documented his experience in daily clips.

Apart from being a huge book aficionado (evident from the mountain of book reviews on his page), Pignal is the great-grandson of the founder of Bata and sits on the company's board of directors.

According to the Ministry of Health, patients are required to undergo consecutive Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests before they can be discharged to ensure that the virus is no longer present in their bodies. The PCR tests detect the presence of viral genetic material in their biological samples.

But for Pignal, the road to being discharged was an unexpectedly long one.

His ordeal started on March 3 when he developed symptoms including a headache and chills onboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Singapore, he recounted.

The next day, he tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), becoming Case 113.

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His first days in NCID went smoothly — by March 8, he was feeling "absolutely fine" and all of his symptoms had subsided, he said.

He also sang praises of NCID and its staff, saying: "Everybody's been super friendly and kind and compassionate."

"I really want to commend Singapore for the amazing, efficient work they've done in containing this."

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By March 15, he was no longer receiving any medications or treatment.

But the negative tests that would give him a clean bill of health remained as elusive as ever.

In his own words: "The only thing keeping us here now is just a little molecule sitting at the top of our noses."

Even as he busied himself with book reviews and backgammon with his roommate, British real estate developer Johnny Sandelson, he was beginning to feel like he was in a "very nice, very well cared for prison".

On March 24, or Day 21, he received more bad news — he would be moved to a community isolation facility where tests would only be conducted about twice a week.

This meant fewer opportunities for a negative test, or his "golden ticket" out, he lamented.

According to MOH, the community isolation facility at D'Resort NTUC in Pasir Ris is meant to house patients who are well but still testing positive for Covid-19, freeing up healthcare facilities.

For Pignal, things reached a low point on March 30 (Day 27).

"It's not clear who's in charge. It's not clear who we can speak to. It's very isolating," he said in his daily update. "Frankly, I'm getting a bit scared."

Some of the information that he had been told was also contradictory, he said.

While the staff at NCID had reportedly told him that he would be tested twice a week, another staff member at the facility told him that tests would be conducted every five days.

The staff eventually clarified that testing would be done once every four days, he said in an update on April 2. If the test was negative, they would be tested again the next day and allowed to leave if they received a second negative result.

Fortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel came on Day 40, when Pignal finally tested negative for the virus twice in a row.

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While Pignal admitted that some of his problems, such as patchy Wi-Fi and unpalatable food, were merely "First World problems" he also raised a pertinent question.

"A point that hasn't really been touched so much is the effect, psychologically, of being confined this long. For many people it must be quite difficult.

"I wonder if the authorities have considered the psychological and mental health issues around this. Because I feel some people would definitely have trouble with this length of stay."

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com