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Orangeville councillor catches COVID-19

April 15, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Orangeville Coun. Lisa Post and her family contracted COVID-19 in late March and are happy to share, they’ve since recovered.

Coun. Post’s husband got a phone call on March 27 notifying him that he was a close contact to a new case of COVID-19 at work, which led to an instant lockdown of their home and the start of an isolation period.

The following evening, Coun. Post’s husband started developing symptoms, which had a rapid onset, she noted.

“The symptoms were pretty fast and furious… he went from having kind of a low-grade fever to having full flu like symptoms,” Coun. Post told the Citizen.

The family has a spare bedroom and isolated her husband there after they were notified of his exposure.

However, despite their best efforts, the virus couldn’t be contained.

“Unfortunately, these variants are so contagious that myself and my daughter just couldn’t escape it as both of us tested positive as well,” Coun. Post said.

“Both of us remained symptom free for the first number of days and we were prompted to get tested by Public Health as we were considered to be high risk close contacts, which is what Public Health calls it because we live in the same home.

“So within no time, all of us had tested positive. It ran rampant through the house. We wore masks in the house, disinfected and kept my husband isolated, and even still with that, we didn’t escape it, unfortunately.”

The worst of the illness for Coun. Post’s husband and daughter was strong flu like symptoms, such as a fever and aches, while she had a milder case, but to this day cannot taste or smell.

“It’s interesting how it affects each person differently,” she remarked.

Coun. Post told the Citizen she’s tried countless tricks and tips to regain her sense of taste and smell online but nothing has worked yet.

In some cases, it can take months for individuals to regain those senses, while most people have them return after a matter of days.

Coun. Post said the fact that those symptoms are neurological instead of related to the taste buds or nasal cavity is interesting as well.

“It’s such a strange one, because I mean, we’ve all had colds before where you can’t smell quite well or you can’t taste quite right but this is completely different from that,” she said. “For example, if I’m eating something that’s sour or that I know is sour, I can tell on my tastebuds that it’s sour, I can feel it but it has zero flavour, absolutely nothing, so it’s such a bizarre sensation.”

Coun. Post said she’s grateful that everyone in her family had moderate symptoms of COVID-19 and weren’t more deeply impacted.

She told the Citizen her one main message to the community is her appreciation for the local health unit.

“The Wellington–Dufferin–Guelph Public Health Unit is absolutely an amazing group of people. Their diligence is making sure that people who’ve been exposed, understand what their risks are, understand what their symptoms are, understand when to get tested and why to get tested,” lauded Coun. Post.

“They were so available to answer every single question that our family had through this process and they’re truly unsung heroes.”

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