New Jersey’s first patient to be diagnosed with coronavirus has spoken out from his hospital bed.
32-year-old James Cai, a physician’s assistant who divides his time between Fort Lee, NJ and Manhattan, had to stay at Hackensack University Medical Center after he was diagnosed with the killer virus, CBS News reported.
He talked about his illness and told the news outlet that he thinks he contracted the disease during a medical conference at Times Square hotel.
“People have to take coronavirus seriously,” he said. “It’s very serious.”
Cai, a non-smoker with no underlying health problems, first went to an urgent care clinic before he was referred to an emergency room.
But while medics continue to communicate with doctors in China, the 32-year-old said ‘every day is getting worse’ for him.
“The virus is everything,” Cai said. “Diarrhea, watery eyes, shortness of breath, chest pain, you name it. It happened so quick.”
Cai also urged others to take precautions against the disease. “A lot of people say, ‘It’s okay. Don’t wear a mask.’ I don’t believe that,” he expressed, adding that he may have “caught a sneeze from somebody and caught the virus.”
An official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned people that ‘many will become sick’ from coronavirus.
The director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Nancy Messonier, said: “It’s fair to say that as the trajectory of the outbreak continues, many people in the United States, will at some point in time, either this year or next, be exposed to this virus. And there’s a good chance that many will become sick.”
According to the data from WHO’s research in China, the director said that COVID-19 is ‘highly contagious,’ adding: “And there’s essentially no immunity against this virus in the population, because it’s a new virus.”
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