A Winnipeg man who caught the novel coronavirus on a trip to Mexico near the beginning of the pandemic says he feels blessed that he came through the experience unscathed.
Ryan Caliguri told 680 CJOB he’s received a lot of flack online from people who can’t believe he didn’t know much about the disease at the time — but when he headed overseas the first week of March, COVID-19 was still a minor concern throughout much of the world.
“We were kind of not sure whether we should go or not, but at that point, we were reading some news stories that said it was not going to be that big of a deal,” he said.
“So I went down on vacation with three other friends to Cabo San Lucas.
“I was there for about three days, and on day three, I woke up with chills — very cold. I just thought it was the air conditioning unit… it was not the air conditioning unit.”
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Caliguri said he began to get more and more fatigued, with worsening chills, and that he knew something was wrong, but didn’t know it was COVID-19.
On his return to Winnipeg, he said, he was told by a border agent to stay home and quarantine. On the second day home, he called Health Links to get a test, and a week-and-a-half later, it was confirmed: he had contracted the coronavirus.
“For me, I’m lucky — being young and healthy and active, it really increased my chances of recovering from this virus without any ill effects.”
Caliguri said he’s not sure where, specifically, he contracted the virus, but he believes it was on the Mexican resort, where he and his friends — some of whom also became ill — shared food and were in close contact with large numbers of people.
Since his recovery, the 34-year-old said the most common questions he’s been asked are about a ‘cure’, and how he managed to get through it.
His response? Stay at home.
“The questions that came to me were, ‘what are you doing, how are you staying healthy? What did they give you?” he said.
“And the answer is nothing… calm down, relax, watch some comedies, laugh, make sure I’m drinking some fluid. Same as anyone else would nurse a cold or flu.
“I had a little bit of worry… am I healthy enough? You start to question. You get yourself a little worked up. When you start hearing that people are passing away, it really brings up the anxiety.”
Overall, Caliguri’s advice is to listen to the latest information that’s coming out about the virus. Details, he said, have been changing drastically from week to week — especially since his March diagnosis — and had he known the severity of the illness, he probably would have thought twice about the vacation that led to it.
The province’s top public health official, Dr. Brent Roussin, said Friday that Manitoba has been doing a good job following public health orders and keeping infections low.
“Our numbers have been flat as of late thanks to Manitobans’ strong efforts,” he said.
Roussin also reminded Manitobans that people with any kind of respiratory symptoms should not be heading out as safety restrictions ease, and they should call Health Links to get tested.
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