A woman posted a photo of her positive Covid test on Instagram - and her aunt congratulated her after mistaking it for a pregnancy test.
Holly Baxter is the US Voices Editor for The Independent, and is currently visiting family in the UK for Christmas.
After testing positive shortly after arriving, she posted an image of the positive test to her Instagram story with the caption: “Just 4 days back on plague island and...”
It was a post to briefly explain to followers why she’d had to cancel plans.
But shortly afterwards, her aunt sent her a message saying: “Oh how wonderful. That is such lovely news for all the family.”
“My poor sweet aunt,” Holly captioned her Twitter post, which highlighted her aunt’s joy thinking that she had a bun in the oven. The post quickly racked up thousands of likes.
My poor sweet aunt pic.twitter.com/cAc2Rwx55J
— Holly Baxter (@h0llyb4xter) December 15, 2021
Speaking to Indy100, Holly said that she and her aunt had a “good laugh” about the misunderstanding and that she was “unaware” that she was going to go viral.
“After a good laugh, I replied, telling her that I was in fact only pregnant with the viral particles of Omicron and she told me to get well soon, unaware that she was about to go viral in a different way on Twitter.”
Baxter said that she was driving when her aunt first heard that people enjoyed her mixup.
“The next day and heard it discussed on BBC breakfast radio when she promptly texted me to say she was ‘laughing her head off,’ and had told all my cousins,” she continued.
Baxter added that her aunt has always been “good-humoured” so she knew she would be a good sport about it.
“I think everyone appreciated a bit of light relief from the Covid explosion situation, so I’m glad to have provided some.”
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Judging by the responses on Twitter, it provided some light relief in tough times. Get well soon, Holly!
Awks. You’ve two options. One is a gentle letdown.
— Dave Thomas (@endofmeoldcigar) December 15, 2021
Choose wisely 😄
Yep, this happened to me as well… painful thing is that I’ve been trying for a baby for 2 years and we are having issues, so people confusing a positive lateral flow with a pregnancy announcement was just the icing on the cake of crap that has been this year!
— Sarah Hunt (@scampbell25) December 15, 2021
Here to show support
— Specsavers (@Specsavers) December 15, 2021
This is going to be a meme I can see it now.
— Tom Lunn (@TomLunn) December 15, 2021
I love how she must have read that as though there's nothing else to do on Plague Island so clearly a positive test makes sense!
Congratulations on the impending birth of millions of virus
— 𝖋𝖗𝖆𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 (@raiderfra) December 15, 2021
I'm in awe how the past 20 months or so just haven't affected your aunt in any way shape or form.
— Sheldon K. Goodman (@SheldonKGoodman) December 15, 2021
