A Pittsburgh news anchor is one of the first 200 people in Allegheny County, Pa., to fight off the coronavirus.
WPXI anchor Ryan Houston felt sick and got a COVID-19 test. He tested positive for the virus and has since been in self-quarantine.
On Friday night, via video chat with station anchor Lisa Sylvester, he told his story.
“I was thinking it was just a sinus cold because that’s what it felt like—a headache, sinus pressure. I didn’t have a fever. I wasn’t coughing then; it was just a regular sinus cold,” he said.
Houston took a test at a drive-through testing center after a friend recommended he get one since he’d been traveling. A few days after, he started exhibiting some of the more common symptoms of the virus. It took nine days for the results to come back.
“I couldn’t get out of the bed, my chest started to harden—it was hard to breathe. I couldn’t sleep at night because I was in pain any way I laid down in the bed,” he said.
Houston is getting better and says he’s looking forward to returning to the desk.