Woman Stayed at Home in Three Weeks But Still Tested Positive for COVID-19

For 3 weeks, a woman from Charlotte, North Carolina has not left her house, yet was still diagnosed with COVID-19 late Thursday.

Rachel Brummert, who already has an autoimmune disorder, said she is terrified. "This is the sickest I've ever been and it's the most scared I've ever been. From what I'm hearing about ventilators, it's scary stuff. I'm really hoping I can wait this out at home."

The situation poses a mystery because the virus is contracted through human-to-human transmission.

Because of her underlying illness, she is identified as a high-risk patient, so she made sure to listen to the experts and stayed indoors.

Brummert has not left her home since mid-March and also has restricted her exposure to be extra cautious, even temporarily staying in a separate room from her husband to practice social distancing.

She went to the pharmacy 3 weeks ago on around March 18 but has remained inside her house since.

She started experiencing symptoms including a fever, coughs, and a headache, then after several days, she met the criteria to undergo testing for the novel coronavirus.

According to Brummert, she does not know the root of her infection. "I really thought I was doing everything right," she remarked.

When getting mail from the mailbox, she always wears gloves.

Apart from the pharmacist and her husband, the only other person that Brummert had come in contact with was a woman who volunteered to deliver groceries at her doorstep. The woman later tested positive for the coronavirus.

However, the woman had no direct contact with her. "I barely had any contact," Brummert recalled. "I didn't even touch her."

In general, she steers clear of all external contact and would not even order take-out meals.

Now, Brummert is suffering from cough, headache, fever, difficulty breathing, loss of smell, and fatigue.

She also said that she did forget to put on gloves when moving packages from her porch.

"I've had the flu. This is not the flu. It's a whole 'nother monster," she said.

One netizen responded to Brummert's plight, "You are at risk with anyone who walks through your door."

Another user wrote, "Sanitize every item you bring home. The virus can live on plastic and cardboard for quite a while."

On Twitter, a user tweeted, "Like all viruses, it can live on surfaces for hours and days."

Irrespective of the source of her confirmed case, Brummert is aware that her diagnosis is another reminder that the coronavirus can be easily contracted and often hard to trace. This means it spreads at disturbingly high rates.

Her self-quarantine began on March 15. Symptoms first became apparent around March 22.

The United States currently holds the title for the world's largest number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It recorded 555,371 cases as of Monday on April 13.

Johns Hopkins University released the global death toll for the coronavirus on Saturday, indicating it now surpassed 101,000 amid around 1.6 million confirmed cases.

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