Ate B Shares First Thoughts After Testing Positive for COVID-19

Testing positive for 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) can impact everyone in different ways. More than the physical aspects, testing positive for a deadly disease impacts someone emotionally and psychologically. In most cases, it leads to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

For someone like Bernadette Sembrano-Aguinaldo, who tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered, this pandemic is a calamity to everyone. It can kill. It impacts economies. It impacts everything. But, life must go on.

Bernadette Sembrano-Aguinaldo of ABS CBN News graced the first episode of the third season of Kick-Start Coffee Brewed Awakening on Monday, where she and Migs Bustos talked about the former's journey towards recovering from COVID-19. For the woman whom most people refers to as Ate B, her first thoughts after learning that she tested positive for COVID-19 can be summarized in one word: "Shocked,"

She elaborated about the impact of finding out that she tested positive. "The first thought was 'Oh my God! I have to get out of this house,' I was trying to figure out where would I go, what would I bring. Why? Because the first thing you would think about is 'Oh my God! I don't want my loved ones to get infected. I have to get out of here,' You know that you have something that can infect other people,"

Throughout Monday's episode, Sembrano-Aguinaldo talked about her journey towards recovery that included the things she experienced and realized during her isolation. Eventually, she mentioned wanting her COVID-19 story to become a story of hope.

"This has to be a story of hope. My story should be a story of hope because people are scared. That was very clear to me. When little by little I was coming out on social media, that was very clear to me. I wanted to tell people that life goes on. We are coping together. It's not easy, and I'm going through the same things that a few are,"

In the end, Ate B is thankful.

"I thanked the Lord. I said, 'Lord, thank You because I understand what other people are going through. I understand them better,"

Screenshot is from the Kick-Start Coffee Brewed Awakening Facebook paage