ABC News correspondent Kaylee Hartung is recovering after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Hartung had covered the outbreak when the first cluster of cases was discovered outside Seattle.
“It really all started with a runny nose about a week ago, and that was four days after I returned from a week spent in Seattle covering the initial outbreak of the virus in the U.S.,” Hartung told Robin Roberts on GMA this morning.
“I honestly thought it was allergies,” Hartung said of the early symptoms a week ago today. “I didn’t think it was anything more than that. She said she woke up the next morning and knew it was more than allergies. “I was fatigued. I was not looking forward to getting out of bed. I had a headache right between the eyes. I was congested. I had body aches. My lower back was really hurting,” she said.
“I wasn’t having any sort of a dry cough. I didn’t have any shortness of breath and I didn’t feel pressure on my chest. So it was easy for me at first to think, this is nothing. This is not something to be concerned about,” said Hartung, 34.
And while she feels “so much better” today, Hartung isn’t sure who she might have come into contact with when she was asymptomatic. “I had to make uncomfortable phone calls to friends and colleagues who I had come in contact with after I came back from Seattle,” said Hartung who will be quarantined for 14 days.
“I hope I can be a reality check for some folks out there who are having these mild symptoms. We need to be listening to our bodies and recognizing there are no coincidences right now,” she said.
“Social distancing needs to be taken seriously. By the time you have symptoms, it’s too late.”