18 family members catch COVID-19 after a holiday in Pennsylvania

Eighteen members of the same family contracted coronavirus after one of them hosted a holiday party, despite having previously shown symptoms.

The family’s nightmare began on the morning of December 26 in Milmont Park, Pennsylvania, when 55-year-old Darlene Reynolds woke up with a scratched neck.

The slight irritation could not have come at a worse time as Reynolds was preparing to receive relatives who were traveling from Canada until the next day, she told WPVI this week.

Apparently Reynolds knew it could be a symptom of COVID-19, so he continued to monitor his other signs.

“I didn’t have a fever because I kept checking it – no fever, no fever, no fever. I said, “I’ll keep my distance from when I have a small cough,” she said.

The party went as planned, and soon several family members began to get sick of what would turn out to be an outreach event.

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Reynolds said she and her relatives did not initially know they had COVID-19, suspecting it could be the flu.

But when they went to be tested, the coronavirus was confirmed to be the culprit.

‘My husband gave positive results the next day. And then [my daughter] she got sick and she gave positive results, and my son gave positive results, ‘said Reynolds.

A total of 18 relatives – aged between one and 62 – were positive for the virus, she said.

Both her son Luke and her husband Stephen developed such serious cases that they ended up in hospital.

Luke was discharged on Monday, Reynolds announced in a cheerful Facebook post, but Stephen is still ill to come home.

“It’s going in the right direction.” He’ll need oxygen when he gets home, Reynolds’ daughter Joy Purdie told WPVI.

To make matters worse, Stephen’s business, Mini Movers, failed to take over after his truck broke down – leaving the family without income to cover hospital bills.

But the family received a helping hand when a woman named Lisa Riggin discovered their story on Facebook and began asking other members of the small community to join her in providing financial support.

Riggin has created Venmo and PayPal accounts, which have so far raised $ 4,000 for the cause.

“The truck was stopped for a month and they had no income and I just don’t want to see them lose their home or business,” Riggin told WPVI.

“People donate, not as much as I would like, but people respond. I had a guy last night who donated $ 500. He doesn’t even know me.

The story of the Reynolds family has come to light as the recent devastating rise in coronavirus cases in America – which experts say has been fueled by holiday travel and gatherings – seems to be diminishing slightly.

At noon on Tuesday, more than 24 million cases and 399,008 deaths were confirmed in the United States. Of those, 777,186 cases and 19,467 deaths came from Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health.

Almost every state has seen a decline in the number of people who have tested positive in the past seven days, with the exception of Maine, South Carolina and Virginia, which are on the rise. Three states – Delaware, New Jersey and Texas – report no change.

New daily cases also fell from a high of 283,204 on January 8 to 137,885 on Tuesday, January 19 – a 51% drop in 11 days. The seven-day moving average of 200,407 is the lowest figure recorded this year.

However, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that masks and social distancing are not going anywhere soon and that the nation should prepare for the fact that COVID-19 is here to stay.

“We have to do this as a possibility. We have to be prepared for that, ‘Fauci told The National Desk on Tuesday.

“At the moment we are quite lucky to have an extremely effective vaccine for the strain that is now circulating in our own country. We may need to make changes as new strains appear. ”

The nation’s leading infectious disease expert says normalcy can only occur when most of the country is vaccinated.

“When we make the country vaccinated between 70% and 85% and we get this blanket or umbrella of herd immunity, so that the level of the virus is so low in society that it is not really a threat to anyone, then we can we are starting to fall short of the strictness of public health measures “, said Fauci.

“The bottom line is that if you get vaccinated, you can’t throw away the masks, because you could be infected and probably infect others.”

Only 14.7 million Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since Tuesday morning, and only about 54 percent of the vaccine doses distributed to states have been administered to humans, according to Bloomberg data.