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

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

The family’s nightmare began on the morning of December 26 in Milmont Park, Pennsylvania, when Darlene Reynolds, 55, woke up with a sore throat.

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

Reynolds apparently knew it could be a symptom of COVID-19, so she continued to monitor her other signs.

– I didn’t have a fever because I kept checking – no fever, no fever, no fever. I said, “I’m going to keep my distance, since I have a little cough,” she said.

The party went on as planned and, soon after, more family members began to fall ill than would become a widespread event.

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

But when they went for the test, the coronavirus was confirmed as the culprit.

– My husband tested positive the next day. And then [my daughter] I was getting sick and she tested positive, and my son tested positive, ‘said Reynolds.

A total of 18 relatives – aged between one year and 62 – ended up testing positive for the virus, she said.

Her son Luke and her husband Stephen developed cases so severe that they ended up in the hospital.

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

‘He’s going in the right direction. He will need oxygen when he returns home, ‘Reynolds’ daughter Joy Purdie told WPVI.

To make matters worse, Stephen’s company, Mini Movers, was unable to take jobs after his truck broke down – leaving the family without income to pay hospital bills.

But the family received help when a woman named Lisa Riggin heard about their story on Facebook and started asking other members of the small community to join her in providing financial support.

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

“The truck has been out for a month and they have no income and I just don’t want to see them lose their homes or businesses,” Riggin told WPVI.

‘People are donating, not as much as I would like, but people are responding. We had a guy last night who donated $ 500. He doesn’t even know me or her. ‘

The Reynolds family story came to light when the recent devastating outbreak of coronavirus cases in the United States – which experts say was fueled by vacation trips and meetings – appears to be easing slightly.

As of Tuesday noon, more than 24 million cases and 399,008 deaths have been confirmed in the United States. Of these, 777,186 cases and 19,467 deaths came from Pennsylvania, according to the state health department.

Almost every state has seen a drop in the number of people tested positive in the past seven days, except for Maine, South Carolina and Virginia, which are increasing. Three states – Delaware, New Jersey and Texas – do not report changes.

New daily cases also dropped from a peak of 283,204 on January 8 to 137,885 on Tuesday, January 19 – a 51 percent drop in 11 days. The seven-day moving average of 200,407 is the lowest since the new year.

However, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that masks and social detachment are not going anywhere anytime soon and that the nation may have to 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.

“Right now, we are lucky to have an extremely effective vaccine for the strain that is now circulating in our country. We may need to make modifications as new strains that are different appear. ‘

The country’s leading infectious disease specialist says normality can only occur when most of the country is vaccinated.

‘When we get the country to be 70 percent to 85 percent vaccinated, and we get this blanket or umbrella of collective immunity so that the virus level is so low in society that it’s not really a threat to anyone, then we can start to come down on the rigor of public health measures, ‘said Fauci.

“The bottom line is that if you get vaccinated, you won’t be able to throw away the masks, because you can be infected and possibly infect other people.”

Only 14.7 million Americans were vaccinated against COVID-19 early on Tuesday, and only about 54 percent of the doses of the vaccine distributed to states were administered to people, according to Bloomberg data.