Coronavirus: Olympic gold medallist latest to test positive
An Olympic champion is the latest high profile name to be diagnosed with COVID-19, but it was better news for self-isolating German leader, Angela Merkel.
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An Olympic gold medallist has revealed he has contracted the coronavirus and described the illness as “by far the worst virus I have ever endured.”
Retired South African swimmer Cameron van der Burgh, 31, said he has been struggling with the disease for the past two weeks, reports the New York Post.
“By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs (no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic),” he tweeted.
Although his worst symptoms, like severe fever, have eased, Van der Burgh said he’s still grappling with serious fatigue and an unshakeable cough.
“Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours,” said the 2012 Olympic 100-metere breaststroke champion.
He addressed athletes specifically, writing, “The loss in body conditioning has been immense and [I] can only feel for the athletes that contract Covid-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle.”
6/ Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first - COVID-19 is no joke!
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
“Athletes will continue to train as there is no clarification re summer Games and thus are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk,” wrote Van der Burgh, who retired in 2018.
“And those that do contract will try rush back to training most likely enhancing/extending the damage/recovery time,” he added.
“Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first – COVID-19 is no joke!”
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday finally admitted that it may need to postpone the summer games in Tokyo, which have a current July starting date.
MERKEL NEGATIVE AFTER FIRST VIRUS TEST
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “doing well” in self-imposed quarantine and awaiting further coronavirus testing after a first result came back negative, her spokesman said Monday.
The veteran leader decided to self-isolate as a precaution after learning on Sunday that a doctor who vaccinated her last Friday was infected with the novel coronavirus.
“The result of today’s test was negative,” her spokesman Steffen Seibert told DPA news agency.
He had earlier told reporters in the capital that Ms Merkel “is doing well and working from home”.
Further tests will follow in the coming days, Mr Seibert explained, since the initial test at such an early stage may not be conclusive.
In the meantime, the chancellor is getting on with the job from the comfort of her Berlin flat.
The 65-year-old dialled into a Monday morning (local time) cabinet meeting that clinched a major rescue package for virus-stricken companies and employees in Europe’s top economy.
Seibert thanked everyone on Merkel’s behalf for “the many, many well wishes and messages for the chancellor to stay healthy”.
The spokesman declined to say whether Ms Merkel’s chemistry professor husband Joachim Sauer was quarantining with her, saying he would not share information about family members.
Asked if he himself, as a close Ms Merkel staffer, should self-isolate, Mr Seibert said he last met with the chancellor on Sunday afternoon but had stuck to the advice of keeping a safe physical distance from people.
News that Ms Merkel was going into quarantine came shortly after she gave a press conference in Berlin where she showed no symptoms of ill health.
She used the press conference to announce fresh curbs on social interactions to contain a pandemic that has infected over 22,600 people in Germany and killed 86.
SA SENATOR TESTS POSITIVE
A South Australian Senator has tested positive for coronavirus after sitting in an inquiry with another politician who was unknowingly infectious after attending a NSW wedding where a “cluster” outbreak began.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick confirmed on Monday afternoon he had contracted COVID-19 almost two weeks after he sat through a hearing with NSW Senator Andrew Bragg when he had the virus.
Mr Patrick said he did not have any symptoms, but had been isolating since he was made aware of Mr Bragg’s positive test on March 17.
The Daily Telegraph understands while Mr Patrick did meet the criteria for 14 days of self-isolation due to his close contact with Mr Bragg on March 9, he did not technically meet the criteria for a test because he had no symptoms.
It is believed Mr Patrick only took a test on Sunday after being referred by a GP last week as a precaution.
He had been isolating the entire time.
“SA Health has advised me that, despite being asymptomatic, my COVID-19 test has returned positive,” Mr Patrick said on Twitter.
“I have assisted them with comprehensive contact tracing and they’ll call anyone considered at risk.”
Mr Bragg contracted COVID-19 as a guest at a friend’s wedding in Stanwell Tops in NSW on March 6.
There have been 35 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among attendees at that wedding.
Two Labor Senators – Tony Sheldon and Jenny McAllister – have also self-isolated because they attended the same senate hearing on March 9 with Mr Bragg.
In a joint statement Ms McAllister confirmed she had self-quarantined and been tested for the coronavirus and had a negative result, while Mr Sheldon did not meet testing criteria but had also isolated.
The senate hearing went from about 9am to 4pm on March 9.
None of the four senators attended the current sitting week in Canberra.
PENNY WONG IN SELF-ISOLATION
Labor Senator Penny Wong has announced she is self-isolating in Canberra after waking up this morning “feeling unwell”.
In a statement issued this morning, Senator Wong said: “This morning I woke feeling unwell. Consistent with advice to all Australians, and recognising that my Parliamentary colleagues will return to their home states and communities, as a responsible precaution I will self-isolate, pending medical advice. As a result I will not be attending Senate today.”
Federal parliament is meeting to deal with legislation governing the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic.
It comes as fallen film mogul Harvey Weinstein has reportedly been put into isolation in prison after testing positive for the coronavirus.
An upstate New York newspaper quoted unnamed officials confirming the diagnosis of Weinstein and two other prisoners.
Weinstein’s spokesman told The Daily Beast “our team … has not heard anything like that yet”.
There have been a number of COVID-19 diagnoses in New York’s jails.
The Niagara Gazette quoted Mike Powers, the head of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association saying: “There is no better breeding ground for this virus than a closed environment such as a correctional facility.”
Weinstein, 68, was this month sentenced to 23 years prison for rape and sexual assault.
He has alternated between spending time in Rikers Island jail and a Manhattan Hospital, where he was being treated for chest pains and other ailments.
CNHI newspapers reported that Weinstein had been isolated in the Wende Correctional Facility, in the west of New York State.
SPANISH OPERA SINGER TESTS POSITIVE
Placido Domingo has announced that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The 79-year-old opera singer made the revelation in a post on his personal Facebook account.
“I feel it is my moral duty to announce to you that I have tested positive.” The tenor says he and his family are in self-isolation and that he is feeling well despite having fever and a cough.
“I beg everyone to be extremely careful, follow the basic guidelines by washing your hands frequently, keeping at least a 6 foot distance from others, doing everything you can to stop the virus from spreading and please above all stay home if you can! Together we can fight this virus and stop the current worldwide crisis, so we can hopefully return to our normal daily lives very soon,” he said.
It comes as star of the TV show Younger Debi Mazar has taken to Instagram to describe her symptoms and tell fans she’s OK after testing positive for COVID-19.
The actress, who co-stars with Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff on Younger and has appeared in Goodfellas, Singles and Entourage, wrote that her husband and two daughters felt the symptoms first, about a month ago.
“My entire home … got an odd bug — low-grade fever, headaches, sore throat, body aches, ears ringing and a dry cough. It cleared up quickly. Seasonal I thought? But it felt unusual/different …” wrote Mazar, 55.
Two weeks later, Mazar woke up with a 39.1-degree fever and “super intense body aches”, the New York Post reports.
“I had had cocktails the evening prior and smoked a few cigarettes. I figured I had jacked my immune system from having a fun night with friends,” she wrote.
Mazar called a friend of hers who is a doctor to ask if she could get the test for the deadly disease.
But she was denied the test because she didn’t meet the criteria — she hadn’t travelled out of the country or interacted with anyone who had tested positive, she wrote.
“I found this kind of a CRAZY criteria for a NY’er as I had taken the subway, gone to the theatre, the grocery store, the pharmacy, hair salon,” Mazar wrote.
“I was the mom who was trying to prepare the home and get supplies and bleach wipes, dry goods and extra food.”
Mazar’s family followed news about the coronavirus closely because she has family in Italy.
She said her “biggest panic” in recent weeks was Mayor Bill de Blasio initially refusing to close schools and officials allowing movement around the city.
“Prospect Park yesterday, I hear was jumpin’!” Mazar wrote.
Mazar eventually got tested Tuesday after another friend told her that CityMD/Urgent Care had kits available.
Doctors first tested her for the flu, but results came back negative. She was then tested for the coronavirus and doctors told her to self-quarantine while waiting for the results — which she received Saturday.
“I’m hoping I’ve been through the worst of it already,” Mazar wrote. “One day I feel crappy and the next I’m normal. Today my lungs are heavy, but I’m tough”
Mazar said she will continue to heal at home and that her entire family will be goodfellas and stay under quarantine for 14 days.
“Stay home people! Protect yourselves and your loved ones. Build up your immune systems,” she wrote. “Good luck and God bless us all!”
And key President Trump ally Rand Paul of Kentucky became the first US senator to test positive.
He said he was unaware he had been in contact with anyone who was infected.
It follows two Democrat House members revealing they had also tested positive.
ACTRESS LOSES FATHER TO VIRUS
Doctor Who star Sophia Myles has lost her father to coronavirus, she has revealed.
The British actress, who also appeared in the Transformers movie and TV show Spooks, shared a heartbreaking photo of her father Peter on a ventilator taken not long before he died.
RIP Peter Myles. â¤ï¸
— Sophia Myles (@SophiaMyles) March 21, 2020
My dear Dad died only a few hours ago. It was the Corona Virus that finally took him.
In the photo, which she described as “the harsh reality of coronavirus”, she is seen leaning over her father wearing a mask and gloves while tenderly stroking his head.
Myles later tweeted that her father had died.
Yesterday I went on a journey to see my father. This is the harsh reality of the Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/T609EBfAfJ
— Sophia Myles (@SophiaMyles) March 21, 2020
Meanwhile, former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz died on the weekend after being hospitalised with coronavirus, his son said.
Sanz, 76, was president at the Bernabeu from 1995-2000, a period in which the Spanish soccer powerhouse won the Champions League twice.
“My father has just died,” wrote Sanz’s son Lorenzo Sanz Duran on Twitter.
“He did not deserve this end in this manner. One of the best, most courageous and hardworking people I have seen in my life. His family and Real Madrid were his passion.”
Late last week, it was revealed that Prince Albert of Monaco tested positive for coronavirus.
His health is not a cause for concern, his office has said.
“Prince Albert is continuing to work from the office in his private apartments,” it said in a statement.
The office also added that Prince Albert is in constant contact with members of his cabinet, the government and his closest staff.
He is being monitored by a personal doctor and by specialists from the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, which is named after his late mother Grace Kelly.
According to The Sun, days before his diagnosis, he addressed the people of the principality on the French Riviera to speak about the killer virus sweeping through Europe.
During his speech he announced new restrictive measures similar to those taken by Italy, Spain, and France over the past few weeks.
Only trips to work – if working from home is not possible – and trips to the supermarket or to the doctors will be allowed.
The 62-year-old also asked any group activities – whether indoor or outdoor – to be postponed in order to limit all contacts to within the immediate family.
The Monaco Grand Prix has also been cancelled along with several other events on the Formula One calendar because of virus fears.
Prince Albert said the no-nonsense measures were necessary and essential in order to face the worrying pandemic.
The up-market enclave, where one in three people are estimated to be millionaires, has fewer than a dozen cases of coronavirus.
It is unclear whether Albert’s wife, Princess Charlene – a former Olympic swimmer – has been tested for the disease.
The European Union’s chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, also revealed he had tested positive for coronavirus.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains in self-isolation after his wife, Sophie, tested positive.
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TOM HANKS AND RITA WILSON
Oscar-winner Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, were the first big names to go public with their diagnoses.
Currently self-quarantining on the Gold Coast where they are shooting Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic, Hanks said he would “keep the world posted and updated” on his and his wife’s health.
He then added: “Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball,” quoting one of his lines from 1992’s A League of Their Own.
IDRIS ELBA
Luther star Elba tested positive for the virus earlier this week, sharing the news with his many fans on social media.
“This morning I got some test results back for coronavirus, and it came back positive … and it sucks,” Elba, 47, said in the clip before assuring everyone that he is “doing OK.”
“I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus,” he wrote on Twitter. “Stay home people and be pragmatic.”
In a later video he announced that he had caught the virus from “someone in the public eye”.
OLGA KURYLENKO
The actress and model, 40, announced via Instagram that she was “locked up at home after having tested positive for coronavirus.”
Best known for her role alongside Daniel Craig in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, Kurylenko also revealed that she has “actually been ill for almost a week now” with symptoms including “fever and fatigue.”
She later said that she had not been hospitalised due to the need to make room for “patients that are struggling with life.”
“Thank you to everyone who has sent me well wishes,” she said.
“I’m overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness.”
KRISTOFER HIVJU
The Game of Thrones favourite told fans via Instagram he is “self-isolating at home for as long as it takes.”
He also revealed he was in “in good health” and had only “mild symptoms of a cold”.
“There are people at higher risk for who this virus might be a devastating diagnosis, so I urge all of you to be extremely careful,” he wrote. “Wash your hands, keep 1.5 metres distance from others, go in quarantine; just do everything you can to stop the virus from spreading.”
RACHEL MATTHEWS
The American actress, who voiced Honeymaren in Frozen 2, has “been in quarantine for the last week” after testing positive for the virus.
“Unsure of what the next step is (been getting mixed info so will keep you posted) but obviously will remain in quarantine until told to do otherwise,” the 26-year-old wrote on Monday.
“Let’s please be mindful of our decisions — now is the time to be smart and responsible. Let’s take care of one another!!”
She later told fans that after suffering from symptoms that included shortness of breath, fatigue, dry cough and sore throat, she was “feeling better”.
KEVIN DURANT
The NBA superstar was among four members of the Brooklyn Nets who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The team announced earlier in the week that multiple players were diagnosed with the deadly virus, without disclosing names, according to the New York Post.
“Of the four, one player is exhibiting symptoms while three are asymptomatic,” the team added in a statement. “All four players are presently isolated and under the care of team physicians.”
After the statement was issued, Durant told The Athletic he tested positive for the virus. He told the outlet he was feeling fine.
“Everyone be careful, take care of yourself and quarantine. We’re going to get through this,” Durant said.
RICHARD WILKINS
The TV personality was the first high profile Australians to be tested positive for the virus. The veteran entertainment reporter took to social media to say he was not showing “no symptoms at all” and was “feeling fine”.
In a follow up interview via Skye from his home, Wilkins called the diagnosis “terrifying”, while becoming emotional as he described telling his children the news.
“Having to call my kids and tell them this stuff wasn’t much fun. The weird thing is the only thing you want to do more than anything in the world is hug your kids at a time like this.”
THELMA PLUM
The Australian singer revealed she had also tested positive earlier this week.
“I am currently being managed by the Brisbane Metro North Public Health Unit and they’re taking very good care of me,” Plum wrote on Instagram.
“At this time the Dr wants to keep me here until at least Friday, but the rules around being released are constantly changing.”
“I don’t even really know where to begin, what a wild ride this last month has been for the world. All I can do is stress how important it is to be kind and compassionate to each other during this time & that we need to be looking out for & prioritising the most vulnerable people,” she continues.
“This means skip that party, bar, restaurant or show you really want to go to & practice social distancing.”