a report on how I got tested for covid in Berlin
Let me write a report on how a covid test is done in Berlin. Maybe it can be useful if you're awaiting a test. Or as a historic record. Anyway, there is no moral to the story.
It happened more than a week ago, but I didn't have time to repnort, because I've been enjoying life.
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I found out I had met a friend who had covid, so I called the Berlin-Neukölln corona hotline and was ordered into a quarantine. I asked for a test but if I hand't, I wouldn't get one.
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A person from a test centre called me back the next work day and made an appointment with me for a precise time (like 8:35). I was only allowed to use a car or a bike to get there, no public transport. So bike it was.
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The centre had been established in the grounds of a district office, in an outdoors space that had probably been used as a parking lot before. There was a single person queuing by the gate. Obligatory distancing marks were painted on the sidewalk.
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I was assigned an id number and went to the testing facility itself, which was built in a standard metal shipping container. It had two doors, one for the doctor and another one for the patient. Inside, the container was divided in two halves by an acrylic glass.
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The doctor handed me the test (stick with cotton wool in a tube) through a slot in the glass. Then she instructed me (with the help of a chart with nice illustrations) how I must wipe my throat and nose with the stick. When I was done, I returned the test through the slot.
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The doctor told me I was brave. I told her she was very nice. She told me I was very nice too. I wanted to add that if we can't stay nice to each other, then it makes no sense to save humanity, but I didn't find the right words in German.
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To check the results, I went to the web of the test centre (which is just one page under the official site of the city). There, a PDF is published once a day with the results from the previous day, very low-tech, it's just id numbers and positive/negative. Mine was negative.