Day five doesn’t start out by bringing any more excitement, with even fewer responsibilities to do. With no homework on my slate for the entire day, I am left to fill the time with absolutely nothing.

Symptoms continue to progress and improve slowly every day, reaching the point that a majority of them are not as noticeable.

Up until this point, I have been the only one in the house to test positive and go into isolation. When I first showed symptoms, I made the decision to put myself into lockdown as soon as I could in order to contain any spread of the virus. As the housemates’ tests came back, every negative test was a boost of confidence in our abilities to disinfect.

Cleaning surfaces has been the hardest task for my housemates, even though we have kept my movements limited. On the second day, we made the conscious decision to reserve one of the two bathrooms entirely to me, keeping the door closed and window open so that the virus is diluted by fresh air.

Everything can change quickly, though.

Another member of the house was notified that he tested positive for the virus, though he is asymptomatic. Living on the upstairs floor, we now have a case on each of the two floors, presenting a dilemma as to how we can limit exposure to others.

For those that don’t currently have it, it is understandably worrying to live with two people that have the virus, though they are isolated. They made the united decision to leave the house for 14 days, quarantining in other areas to move away from known sources of the virus. This means, however, that the house is opened up for me outside of just my room; I no longer have to live as a prisoner to my own room.

They all left around 2 p.m., leaving the house to one COVID patient per floor. This gives me the opportunity to actually leave my room for the first time in about 48 hours. Ultimately, this really doesn’t change much. I still stay within my room, whether it be for comfort or subconscious fear of just being out.

Later that night, my housemate and I watch a movie together while distanced and wearing masks; fears of false positives and different viral strands force this. It is a welcomed moment of face-to-face human interaction that I have been devoid of for the past five days.

It feels as though “stage one” has been finished, with new challenges beginning to pop-up in front of me.