VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – It’s a questionable honor nobody wanted to have, being the first in Hampton Road to test positive for the coronavirus.
One Virginia Beach couple, though, is wearing it like a badge of honor.
“It’s just a very unique virus,” said the husband.
“We’re still kind of in a state of shock that we were the first,” his wife added.
The husband and wife, who we are not identifying, contracted the coronavirus on an Egyptian cruise in early March. They may have been the first in area, but they were far from the last.
“As the cases started rising here in this area, I was kind of shocked,” the wife said.
More than 4,000 Hampton Roads residents have now tested positive. Some of them have not been able to recover. The Virginia Beach couple knows how lucky they are.
“I feel very blessed,” the husband added.
“We were truly blessed that we got through this without having to go back to the hospital,” his wife said.
The couple spent weeks in self-isolation. Most of that time was spent recovering from the illness. It didn’t happen overnight.
“I just had a severe cough and that lasted a good eight to nine weeks, which was a lot longer than I expected,” she said.
“Even after they said I was clear of the virus, I would feel like I almost had mononucleosis,” the husband said. “I was very tired for, I would say, a week to 10 days.”
Despite their experiences with COVID-19, the couple says they are not in favor of the governor’s mandatory mask order. They believe people should have a choice.
“We don’t go out and worry ‘Are we going to get in contact with somebody who has the virus?’” the wife said. “I guess we just have that comfort level that we are over it and we are ready to move on.”
The one thing the couple would tell others to do is take precautions, especially for those who are most vulnerable.
“People who are at risk, the elderly who have chemo or people with any other underlying conditions. we really need to protect them,” the husband said.
