'Never have we been so happy to leave Paris': Jamie Chua ends vacation with a Covid-19 scare

While international travel is a thing again thanks to the newly-launched Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL), the dynamic nature of the pandemic and the new Omicron variant can make travelling a nerve-wracking experience. 

And socialite Jamie Chua, who recently enjoyed a vacation in Paris, wasn't spared.

In travel vlog uploaded yesterday (Dec 9), the 48-year-old shared that her partner and travel companion, Terence Koh, had a nasty Covid-19 scare just 48 hours before they were supposed to fly back to Singapore. 

While Jamie described it as a Covid-19 scare, Terence chose to be more positive about the situation by calling it an "adventure". 

The couple recounted that they had gone to take their pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at a pharmacy and received their test results via text message roughly a day or so later. 

Terence had just come back from a run when he received an unexpected result — the words were in red and read "Covid-positive", he said. 

Still reeling in disbelief, Terence said that he struggled to decipher the meaning of the text for a moment. 

"Does that mean I passed my Covid test, that's why it's positive, or does it mean that I have Covid, that's why it's positive," he recounted while laughing. 

"I was very confused because I just ran 8km and I was feeling fine, I had no symptoms at all," he added

Jamie's test came back negative, but the couple couldn't help but panic — especially since this was 48 hours before their flight back home. 

What's even funnier was that before the test results came out, the couple had even thought that Jamie might have Covid-19 because she had no appetite the night before and was feeling extremely tired. 

To double-check his results, Terence decided to take an antigen rapid test (ART), which only takes about half an hour.

The couple were already anticipating another positive test result but thankfully, it turned out negative. They were also fortunate that professionally administered ARTs are recognised as valid pre-departure tests.

And while they bantered about not minding having to stay in Paris for another week, Jamie admitted that the negative test result was still a huge relief. 

"Never have we been so happy to leave Paris," she shared, explaining that due to the current pandemic situation, it isn't easy getting a flight back. 

"It's too complicated for us," she further lamented. 

But despite the hiccup, the couple is not deterred from travelling and promised their viewers more travel vlogs of their future trips. 

melissateo@asiaone.com