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  2020-06-20

  COVID-19 Test Results

  In June, the tutoring company I worked for decided to bring us back into the office to work in-person after we'd worked remotely for a few months. About two weeks after starting back, I nearly failed a pre-work temperature check, started having a bad cough, and developed other symptoms of COVID-19. Thankfully this was the last day I had to work in person for a few days. I decided to go to CVS to go get tested for the virus when I hadn't improved the next day. My mom ended up driving me to the CVS. The branch that I went to had drive-thru testing, and I ended up not being able to take my test until 30 minutes after my appointment because of the influx of people getting tested. When it was my turn, the pharmacist handed my mom the test through the dropbox where they usually pass medicine through. The test kit had two disinfectant wipes, a pair of disposable gloves, the swab, a plastic bag with my name on it, and a test tube. The first wipe was for me to disinfect my hands before touching anything else in the bag. Then, I put on the gloves and grabbed the swab. This swab was long and pointy, and when I inserted it into my nose it made me sneeze. Once I finished swabbing both sides of my nostrils, the swab went into the test tube and the test tube went into the plastic bag. I used the final wipe to wipe down the outside of the bag before handing it to my mother to put into this biohazard box the CVS had installed outside. It took a week to get my results back, despite the estimated 3-day timeline. Though my test was negative, it still changed my life for the next months. My grandfather had chronic respiratory problems, and since social distancing was near-impossible in my tutoring job, I took cut hours in order to go back to working remotely. Arizona State University, HST 580