As Newfoundland and Labrador celebrates the fourth anniversary of the announcement of its first suspected case of coronavirus, two other people in the midst of an initial outbreak reflect on the early days of the pandemic.
Laurie McLean and Cheryl Brown-McLean’s Shift: From General Normality to the Completely Unfamiliar.
Things after they attended a wake at Caul’s Funeral Home in St. Petersburg. John’s in March 2020.
“We didn’t worry at all when we chose to move to Caul’s. We went to a neighbor’s brother’s wake, so all the neighbors were passing by,” Cheryl told CBC News on Thursday.
“There were some warnings about the possible arrival of COVID, you know, here. And the warnings were, I think, at the time: ‘Be careful who coughs or sneezes. Stay out of their reach,’ so to speak. “
Laurie fell ill a few days later and spent 19 days in the hospital with COVID-19. The McLeans are now part of what’s known as the Caul group, which accounted for about 170 connected cases and was one of the first coronavirus clusters reported. in Canada.
“It’s like I’ve been hit by a truck, isn’t it? Like I felt like this disease was almost emerging inside of me,” Laurie said. “I think I’m going to die. . . I literally can’t breathe. “
Newfoundland and Labrador reported their first case of COVID-19 on March 14, 2020. During their stay in the hospital, the McLeans observed the global shutdown around them.
Schools and nurseries across the province closed two days later, and a public fitness emergency went into effect on March 18. The state of emergency was lifted two years later, in March 2022.
The first death due to COVID-19 was reported on March 30. Four years later, about 400 more people in Newfoundland and Labrador have died from the virus, according to statistics reported in the province.
McLean said he has explicit memories of battling the virus, such as being put on a ventilator to help him breathe, and the drug-induced dreams that followed.
“There were humans covered up and extraterrestrial beings were watching us. And they came in, shook their heads, and threw me out. So you know, the extraterrestrial beings rejected me,” he said with a laugh.
“I think now it’s my body that won the battle. “
Cheryl said it was hard to be away from Laurie for so long at the beginning of the pandemic and knows how much she will have challenged other families. She thanks the medical staff at the Health Sciences Center for taking care of any of them and giving her peace of mind.
Four years and a moment after the COVID-19 diagnosis, Laurie said the events of the 2020s are still hard to believe.
But those days, the couple says, life is back to normal.
“I don’t make a living out of it at all,” Cheryl said. I don’t think about it day in and day out. I don’t care. “
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With files via Heather Gillis
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