apart from

[navit]

1) "I had absolutely no symptoms and would not have learned I had COVID apart from having taken the test," she said.

Source:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-still- ... 40236.html

Is '1' grammatical?
Is it standard?
Is it idiomatic?

Can one replace 'apart from' with 'if it were not for'?

2) "I had absolutely no symptoms and would not have learned I had COVID if it were not for having taken the test," she said.

Gratefully,
Navi

[Alan]

Absolutely not!

--> if I had not taken...