Isolating with Covid: Australians grapple with supply shortages and shared houses

Dancing to the Wiggles was one of the things that helped Clare Fletcher get through isolation with a baby to look after.

Water play on the balcony, reading books and horsing around all helped too, although the Sydney mother of Dorothy (Dot, 20 months) said a week in a two-bedroom apartment was harder than she expected.

Fletcher and her husband, David Dewey, (both 37, both double vaccinated) went to the US for Christmas so Dewey’s family could meet Dot. After having a “bit of a shock” at testing delays here, eventually they got hold of rapid antigen tests and found they were positive. Dot was coughing, too.

Related: Tens of thousands of Australians are in isolation

Australians have had plenty of experience with lockdowns (some more than others), but until recently, only relatively few have had to isolate because they have Covid or are close contacts of someone who does.

This week more than 640,000 people have tested positive.

That surge coincides with supply shortages across the nation, as supermarket shelves are emptied of chicken, fresh fruit and vegetables and other essentials. Rapid antigen tests, paracetamol and other Covid-related health goods are also hard to find.

Fletcher counts herself lucky. The family had only mild illnesses, and friends pitched in when they started running out of things.

“I’d put in an order for nappies and baby stuff – that went unfilled for a week,” she says.

“It just sat in processing. We were about to run out, but I did a callout to my Mums’ WhatsApp group.

“I hope I can pay that forward to anyone else in the group if they are in that situation.”

Then there are the trials and tribulations of looking after a small child while confined. “It was good to have two parents at home,” she says. “But I would say for anyone in the same situation, don’t expect to be able to work.”

Coming up with isolation solutions

With even some politicians saying “we’re all going to get” Covid, Australians who have not already experienced isolation are preparing for their stint. There is clear guidance from GPs on how to look after yourself at home after a positive diagnosis.

The federal health department has advice on how to manage isolation in a shared house.

But advice from authorities often fails to take shortages into account, and cannot account for the diversity of human habitats.

Related: Tested positive for Covid? Australian experts on how to manage at home and when to go to hospital

The health department’s advice suggests people who share a house with an infected person should stay elsewhere if possible and use a separate bathroom if available – options that are clearly not viable for many people.

That leaves households trying to come up with their own solutions. In the UK, the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, took himself off to what sounds like his garden shed.

A Melbourne man confined to his room had to use a bucket for a toilet. Some are using tents to remove an infected person from a household.

South Australia’s health department came under fire for using tents to house Aboriginal homeless people who were close contacts in an outbreak.

On the other hand, even before Omicron, doctors were warning that overcrowding in regional Aboriginal communities was a “massive problem” and that tents could be part of the solution. Communities that are themselves isolated are hard to isolate in.

There are plenty of examples of uninfected people leaving plates of food at the bedroom door of someone who’s isolating. In India, people were forced to isolate in treehouses.

Performer Paul McDermott was among those who took issue with advice that presumed people were privileged enough to be able to easily keep separate, after he was advised to use a different toilet.

Space and supplies a luxury

Former politician Dr Jane Lomax-Smith has thought ahead to what isolation would look like in her Adelaide home.

She says she has a “respectful and informed relationship to major diseases and death”.

“Two years ago I repurposed a long-gone son’s bedroom and adjacent bathroom as the ‘quarantine station’ with an oximeter, thermometer and basic drugs.

“Should we become sick, the phone charger and basics will be ready to go. This week I replaced batteries in all the devices and added a pack of spares to the supplies.”

She says she’s lucky to have the space. “I can’t imagine how one could manage with a large household and a couple of essential workers.”

Related: From empty shelves to cancelled festivals: how Omicron is wreaking havoc across Australia

Disability advocate Sam Paior, who set up The Growing Space in SA, has been working with her sons Ben, who has Down’s syndrome, and Bailey to organise home kits for people with disabilities who contract Covid.

They have been driving all over the state trying to source oximeters, thermometers, and other gear to go in a pack with masks, electrolytes, sanitiser and so on. The plan was to sell some kits to fund others for people with disabilities, who may not be able to source their own isolation necessities.

The shortages have made that plan tough. “If we could do this again, what I’d do is have everyone who wants a kit pay for one, then the minute someone is positive, they get it delivered. Pay in advance so we can get them together and send them out as they’re needed, and when this shit is over, if you didn’t need one, you’ll get your money back.

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“I’m pleased we can help those who really need it – those who physically can’t get out there, and those who can’t afford it.”

Much of the advice out there agrees on one thing: it’s critical to plan ahead and stock up on essential items – if you can get them.