Sydney woman who caught Covid after Joh Bailey hair cut reveals symptoms

Claudia Waitsman contracted Covid at Joh Bailey’s hair salon last month and initially had no symptoms – then everything changed.

More than a month after contracting Covid-19 the symptoms are lingering with 25-year-old Claudia Waitsman.

The Eastern Suburbs woman picked up the virus during a trip to Joh Bailey’s hair salon, in Double Bay when the Deltra strain outbreak began on June 16.

Ms Waitsman told news.com.au she initially did not show symptoms of the virus.

Cleaners sanitising public benches and bus stops along the main road in Bondi Beach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“I had been to the hairdressers on the Saturday, then I was told on the Wednesday I had to get a test and isolate. I started to get a headache on Wednesday evening but didn’t think it was related,” she said.

“On the Friday, I thought I might have symptoms so I got tested on the Saturday – which turned out to be positive.

“Once it hit I had shortness of breath, my body aching, that kind of agony, a headache. It was similar to the flu or glandular fever. I lost my sense of taste and smell which I still don’t have back almost a month later.”

There are now 745 active cases of Covid in New South Wales after the state recorded 89 new infections on Tuesday, with 65 people in hospital – including 25 under the age of 55.

Numbers have dropped at Bondi Beach testing clinic. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Of those hospitalised, 18 in ICU and four on ventilators, with just under a third of the patients aged under 55.

The highly viral Delta strain spread quickly from Bondi and the Eastern Suburbs to engulf most of the city. The major areas of concern are now in Sydney’s southwest.

Ms Waitsman, a real estate agent, said she was not surprised by how quickly the virus spread.

“It is crazy,” she said.

“I was in lockdown in my bedroom, like completely in there I didn’t leave. But somehow my dad caught it, it is an absolute miracle my mum didn’t get infected.

“I was even wearing gloves to eat my food to try and stop it from spreading. ”