A former Maltese Health Minister has opened up about how he tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus and how he managed his time while quarantined inside his bedroom for two weeks.

“I didn’t have symptoms so when I got tested with my daughter, the first thing I felt was shock,” Joe Cassar told TVM. “In my heart, I told myself that I had four weeks [in isolation] coming up which I could live well or in desperation.”

Cassar, a psychiatrist, said he often wondered whether he was about to develop symptoms.

“It wasn’t easy. I could only say I was asymptomatic after the 14 days of quarantine were up and I tested negative, because during that period, I was imagining what could happen to me. I’d keep feeling my forehead to check whether I have a fever, I’d keep feeling my throat, and when I’d cough due to dust I’d wonder whether I was about to get a coughing fit.”

“This fear of the unknown is a normal experience, but it was the most difficult experience for me, particularly at night. Somehow you feel more alone at night than usual.”

However, despite these fears, he made an active effort not to fall into the ‘sick role’ and kept himself busy by exercising in his room, seeing his patients virtually and delivering online lecturers.

“I’d walk around 2-3km a day in my room and I’d use my head, so for example I’d walk while listening to mass online.”

He made sure to have a shower everyday and his wife left food outside his bedroom everyday, which the former minister would pick up while wearing a mask.

He didn’t tell his patients he had the virus until he tested negative for this, and this so as not to scare them and divert their attention away from their own psychiatrist problems.

“I’d have burdened them with a problem unnecessarily,” he said. “One of my patients has a relative who had tested positive for COVID-19 and she had opened up to me. When I spoke out, she apologised but I told her that I hadn’t told her [that I had COVID-19] intentionally or she’d have spoken about my problems, and not hers.”

Cassar’s advice to people in similar situations is to maintain a sense of routine, only get COVID-19 news from official news sources and use social media to maintain contact with their loved ones.

“Social media is a blessing that people who went through the Spanish Flu didn’t have because it allows us to speak to people and see their emotions. Once, our family had a social media dinner where everyone had dinner in their own rooms while on a group chat. You might think it’s funny but we spent an hour and a half there and afterwards it felt as though we had just gone out to eat.”