Woman congratulated on positive Covid diagnosis - after aunt mistook photo for pregnancy test

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.

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!