After the Covid-19 fight, survivors forced to battle social stigma

New Delhi: Thirty-year-old Anurag Mehta was ecstatic after tests showed he had recovered from Covid-19. He wanted to tell everyone that he had survived the dreaded disease, but little did he know that there was another crisis waiting — facing stigma from family and friends.

“It feels as if I have been ostracized by my own family. My brother, who lives in the same building, has not visited me even as I have tested negative and clinically do not show any symptoms. I can see that people are avoiding to even talk,” said the young man, whose real name is being withheld.

People who have recovered from Covid-19 are confronting a fear-driven stigma from the outside world. Psychologists have reported unusual queries from people about the stigma they are encountering, as even a month into their recovery their relatives and friends don’t want to interact with them.

While the time for full recovery from Covid-19 varies from person to person, experts and epidemiologists say that people who have fully recovered no longer pose a risk to others.

“Once you have developed symptoms, the infection may last for a week or so. But once you have fully clinically recovered, the likelihood of having any infectivity is low,” said K Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). “If a person has developed symptoms and has then fully clinically recovered, then within 48-72 hours the shedding of any live virus is likely to be minimal. After that you can assume that the person is non-infectious.”

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says determining when it is safe for a person who has recovered from Covid-19 to be around others depends on several factors — people who’ve had Covid-19 and had symptoms can be around other people after 10 days from the onset of symptoms, provided they’ve spent at least 24 hours without a fever.

They should also wait until symptoms have improved. For those who tested positive but had no symptoms, they can be around others 10 days after testing positive for the disease.

People who are immunocompromised should seek a doctor’s advice about whether they need to stay isolated for more than 10 days. Those in this category can be with others after receiving two consecutive negative test results at least 24 hours apart.