Photo: Joe Bruno
A son is warning that short visits — even with precautions like testing and masks — can be unsafeduring the COVID-19 pandemic, after his parents died of the virus following a quick visit with him and his sister.
“We’re a very close Italian family, so we’re used to seeing each other quite often and hugging and kissing, and we sacrificed all of that all year,” Joseph says.
But in November, Joseph and his sister decided that a quick visit with their mom would be okay. His sister had just tested negative for COVID-19 and quarantined at home for about three days afterwards, and Joseph “wasn’t really going anywhere.”
“We didn’t embrace, we had masks on — we thought we did everything right,” Joseph says. “But within three weeks, both of our parents were gone.”
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Carol quickly developed severe COVID-19 illnesswas admitted to the hospitalon Thanksgiving Day. She improved at first and went home that week, but after two days she was back at the hospital and put on a ventilator. Her 80-year-old husband Mike, who did not even visit with their kids, also contracted COVID-19 and went to the hospital about two weeks after Carol, where he was put on a ventilator.
One day after Mike went on the ventilator, Carol died of COVID-19. Mike, her husband of nearly six decades, died nine days later, on Dec. 23.
Carol and Mike Bruno.Joe bruno
Now, Joseph is emphasizing that any visits, no matter how short or seemingly safe, are a risk.
“When I scroll through social media and I see people having house parties and making plans for New Year’s Eve, it’s just so baffling to me that they think they’re immune,” Joseph tells PEOPLE. “I couldn’t get out of bed for ten days and I am an extremely healthy, active human being. This virus just doesn’t discriminate at all, and can really attack in vicious ways.”
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source: people.com
