Ex-mayor Jan McWillams falls victim to coronavirus

A long-serving local councillor is recovering in hospital after contracting coronavirus following a cruise ship holiday. She is critical of the way passengers were not given any instructions.

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A local councillor has been rushed to hospital suffering from COVID-19 after she collapsed and hit her head on Tuesday.

Former Great Lakes Mayor and current MidCoast Councillor Jan McWilliams was taken to hospital by paramedics in the early hours of Tuesday morning after she collapsed at home from worsening COVID-19 symptoms following a holiday on the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph from the isolation ward of Manning Hospital in Taree, Ms McWilliams said she’d been sick at home for two weeks battling the virus before her body “gave out”

Former Great Lakes Mayor and current MidCoast Councillor Jan McWilliams, who is in hospital with coronavirus.

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“I’ve had a pretty rough fortnight of it, I felt unwell on the cruise but when I got up last night to go to the toilet my arms and legs just gave out,” Ms McWilliams said.

“I couldn’t stand up, I just collapsed in a heap and banged my head.”

It comes as Queenslander Garry Kirstenfield, 68, died in Toowoomba Hospital from the virus last week and Ovation of the Seas passengers including Ms McWilliams tested positive after disembarking in Sydney on March 18.

Ms McWilliams was on board the Royal Caribbean cruise liner Ovation of the Seas earlier this month. Picture: Benedict Brook

Ms McWilliams criticised the “lack of testing” and instructions given to passengers, who were allowed to disembark and mingle with the wider community for four days before NSW Health told them to self-isolate.

“The departure lounge full of 4,000 people was empty within three quarters of an hour after we got off,” she said.

“I went home and waited a few days and then got tested and confirmed positive, but when we got off the ship no one checked temperatures, they didn’t check anything. It was pretty unreal.”

Ms McWilliams is being treated at Manning Hospital at Taree.

Ms McWilliams said while she didn’t “feel better” yet she “felt safer” in the care of doctors and nurses.

“I couldn’t have higher praise for what (medical staff) have done for me, I couldn’t wish for better,” she said.

The current total of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Mid North Coast sits at 32.