Aug. 15, 2020 8:50p
(WGTD)---When he urges the public to remain vigilante over COVID-19, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave speaks in part from personal experience.
Delagrave contracted the disease just before Memorial Day. After issuing a news release about his illness in early June, Delagrave hasn’t talked much about it publicly—until now. Delagrave was a guest on Greg Berg’s Morning Show last week.
Delagrave told Greg he was speaking out primarily for two reasons—he wants to let people know that even by taking reasonable precautions it’s still possible to get it and second, “If you don’t have COVID that’s great, but take every step to continue to prevent it because it’s a very serious issue.”
For Delagrave, the symptoms began with a coughing spell. The next day, while playing a round of golf, a headache developed with a general achy feeling. Despite thinking that his symptoms were something other than COVID, Delagrave got tested almost immediately, in part out of an abundance of caution because his wife has a compromised immune system.
During the wait for the test results—made a couple days longer than necessary because his name had been misspelled on the sample—Delagrave got sicker. His temperature spiked to 103.9. Symptoms included a nightly racing heart beat.
In the interim, the test came back positive.
Even though he quarantined at home and tried to stay away from his wife and kids, his entire family came down with it. While the kids were asymptomatic, his wife became seriously ill and was bedridden for a time and had to consult her doctor frequently.
After four days, Delagrave’s symptoms mostly disappeared, although he continued to stay home for the full 14 days. His wife eventually fully recovered and returned to work.
Delagrave said he spent his time in quarantine reading, working in his backyard, watching Netflix and staying in contact with work via email, phone and Zoom.
It remains a mystery over how Delagrave got it. None of his office staff got sick, and neither did anyone that day in his golf party. His best bet is that he contracted COVID through an asymptomatic friend by accidentally picking up and drinking his friend’s soft drink.
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