I caught COVID-19 twice in 8 months — but both my experiences of isolating were completely different

• I've just recovered from COVID-19 for a second time, having previously caught it last July.
• By March, England had lifted many COVID-19 restrictions, and I didn't legally have to isolate.

When I noticed my nose running on the evening of Saturday, March 5, I didn't expect it to be COVID-19 again.

I'd been sneezing more than usual, too, but I put it down to not wrapping up warm enough.

I took a lateral flow test (LFT) in the morning to be safe — and, sure enough, it came back positive.

It wasn't the first time. I'd tested positive exactly eight months before, on July 6, 2021.

Despite being less than a year apart, both experiences were incredibly different.

When I first got COVID-19, I knew it was coming

After spending an evening watching films together, my flatmate told me he felt under the weather and took an LFT, which came back positive. I took two tests that night – one positive, then one negative. But the next day, it was clear that I had COVID-19, too.

The second time I tested positive took me by surprise as none of my friends or colleagues had tested positive.

I go to the office five days a week and LFTs beforehand each morning — they're available for free from the UK Government — and my test on Friday was negative. I'd been double jabbed and then boosted in mid-December, and had previously had the virus, though both natural immunity and vaccines wear off over time.

Both times I got PCR tests as confirmation, which are also available here for free, and both results came back as positive the next day.

Each time I felt a little queasy a few hours before I tested positive. I remember in July putting it down to the milkshake I'd had, but was surprised when the cup of tea I'd had to settle my stomach made me feel worst.

The first time I had COVID-19, two weeks after my first vaccine dose, my main symptoms only set in after I tested positive, and included sneezing, headaches, and wet coughs. I also lost my senses of taste and smell, but this only lasted for two days.

The second time, I started sneezing and having a runny nose — some of the main symptoms of the Omicron variant — around 36 hours after my most recent negative LFT. I later developed a tickly cough and a sore throat but never lost my sense of taste and smell.

But the biggest difference was my living situation. In July, I was living in Newcastle with one flatmate and we both caught COVID-19. This meant I could still have free rein of the house, and was able to pass my free hours cooking and doing jigsaws with him.

But by March I had moved down to London and was living with two other friends. Both of them tested negative, so I isolated in my bedroom. I only left to use the bathroom, and had to check where my housemates were, wear my mask, and sanitize everything I touched.

I also had to ask my flatmates to make me cups of tea and bring meals up to my room, resulting in some very runny porridge, but I was grateful to have such generous flatmates. Because I didn't want them to touch cutlery and crockery I'd eaten off, I worried we'd run out of mugs, plates, and forks. Confined to my room, I read books, watched films, and even devised a new sport — sewing while cycling on an exercise bike.

Both times, I was well enough to work from home, which gave me something else to fill my days with.

In July, England had blanket rules of 10 days of isolation for everyone who tested positive. During that first isolation, I didn't take any LFTs.

But England later allowed people stop isolating after five full days if they tested negative twice and, in February, removed the legal obligation to isolate at all, though it still advises people to do so whenever possible.

Though I wasn't legally obliged, I chose to follow the government guidelines when I had COVID-19 in March and isolate until my LFT tests came back negative.

I first tested positive on an LFT on Sunday morning. I tested positive again on Friday morning, and even though my symptoms had been gone for three days the line was much thicker than on my initial test. But I tested negative on both Saturday and Sunday, so was able to leave isolation seven days after testing postive.

Case rates are falling after peaking in December and January, but England has had nearly 5 million positive cases in 2022 so far, government data shows.

But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is to scrap free LFTs in April. England has also ditched masking rules, though I still wear mine in shops and on public transport. After testing positive, I'm very relieved I continued wearing a mask.

I'm glad I chose to isolate, too. This felt like the right thing to do.

Though my symptoms were mild and I felt well enough to continue my day-to-day life, this didn't mean I wasn't infectious.

Being stuck in my room wasn't exactly fun but I didn't want to risk making other people ill, including my flatmates — especially because the virus affects people in different ways.