Tracy Schofield Cambridge nurse from Ontario, Canada tests positive for coronavirus eight times in 50 days as she now awaits back to back tests to come back negative.
A Canadian nurse working in the frontlines has told of testing positive for coronavirus eight times in the last 50 days.
Tracy Schofield, from Cambridge, Ontario, first began experiencing symptoms such as chills, a fever, and shortness of breath on March 30,
The following day, the mother of three took her first test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and the result was positive, reported CTV News.
Schofield, 49, spent two weeks self-isolating, only for her second test to come back positive. Since then, six more have returned the same result.
Doctors have told Schofield that they don’t believe she is contagious anymore, but that they can’t explain why she keeps testing positive.
‘Whenever I get the test result, it’s like somebody punches me in the stomach,’ Schofield told CTV News.
Tracy Schofield is waiting to take her 10th test for the virus after receiving eight positive results and one false negative. https://t.co/YKpj0CBP1O
— CTV News Northern Ontario (@CTVNewsNorthern) May 20, 2020
‘It’s like somebody punches me in the stomach,’
‘I just want someone to be able to tell me something. Give me an answer. Am I going to have it forever?’
For two weeks after her first positive test, Schofield says she self-isolated in her room at her house, where she lives with her 17-year-old son, Ethan.
Over that period, her temperature reached 104.1F and wouldn’t come down with Tylenol. She says she also lost her sense of smell and taste.
‘I couldn’t smell Vick’s VapoRub, I couldn’t taste salt and vinegar chips,’ Schofield told CTV News.
Now, almost two months later, the majority of her symptoms have disappeared aside from a cough and a little difficulty breathing.
However, her tests from Cambridge Memorial Hospital have kept returning positive.
A case of dead virus cells still circulating in her body?
Schofield says she was excited after her eighth overall test came back negative.
But patients must receive two negative results within a 24-hour period to be considered recovered. Her ninth test came back positive.
And, although authorities from Region of Waterloo Public Health allowed her to leave her house on April 14, she says she won’t consider herself recovered until she gets her two consecutive negative test results.
Schofield says she doesn’t have any pre-existing conditions but she’s concerned that she’ll have long-term complications from the virus.
She is now waiting five days until she can take her tenth overall test.
Health experts say she likely just has dead virus cells still circulating in her body.
The revelation comes on the heels of news that patients who test positive for the novel coronavirus after having recovered are not contagious.
Researchers from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) looked at 285 survivors who tested positive after previous tests said they were negative.
Of the 790 people that the patients came into contact with – none were found to be infected with COVID-19.
As of Friday night, Canada had recorded 82.450 confirmed cases of the virus and 6250 deaths.
