An Ohio man who is in the hospital recovering from the coronavirus has issued a call warning others to take social distancing seriously even as the virus continues to spread all over the nation.
Kevin Harris, 55, said that while he’s “not out of the woods, but… better every day” even as his treatment continues at Mercy Health-St. Joseph Warren Hospital in Warren. But it wasn’t always like that.
In a Facebook Live video filmed on the night of March 13, Harris said he developed a small cough on March 2 which evolved into body aches and a fever. The father of four thought it was the flu because he didn’t have a runny nose or sore throat.
“I never had any signs until the night… I started coughing,” he said. “That was the first sign and it went downhill in 24 hours, like gangbusters. I woke up several times thinking I was gonna die.”
Harris was “one cough from going into cardiac arrest” when a friend arrived to rush him to the hospital on March 8. On March 11, the results came back saying he was positive for COVID-19, the fifth confirmed case in Ohio, reported NBC affiliate WKYC.
Lying on the hospital bed with an oxygen hose attached to his nose, Harris reiterated the importance of social distancing where one is significantly far away enough from others to reduce the risk of breathing in the droplets produced by infected people when they cough and sneeze.
“Do not go in the crowds. Do not shake hands. Stop hugging each other,” he said. “Wash your hands continually. Do not kiss on your kids. There are thousands of people carrying this virus around. They may never get it.”
He repeated his plea while being interviewed by WKYC via Skype.
“People need to stay away from other people. They call it social distancing — I say just be anti-social. Just stay away from other people,” Harris said. “This thing is deathly dangerous. Treat everybody like it’s the zombie apocalypse. Don’t trust nothing anybody touches.”
Harris said through his Facebook video that he had not visited many places in the two weeks before he started showing symptoms. He suspects that he got infected during a check-up at the Cleveland Clinic.
Falling ill has felt like “drowning on dry land” and the only encouraging news is that he’s sure he had not exposed anyone else to the virus because he was just at home for the two weeks prior.
“I promised certain officials that I would tell people they can get through this,” he said. “Don’t be scared. You can live through this. But you’ve got to start taking care of yourself.”
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