Naples man with coronavirus: ‘It’s not a death sentence’

A Naples man in the middle of a two-week quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus has a message: It’s not a death sentence.

Charlie McDonald was on day nine of isolation on Tuesday. The photographer is self-quarantined after a doctor with Millenium Physician Group told him over the phone on March 16 that he has coronavirus.

“She goes ‘I’m sorry but you have coronavirus.’ I said well I kinda figured it anyway,” McDonald said.

McDonald said he knew “it was inevitable” because one of his employees also tested positive after attending a conference.

His symptoms started as a fever and a dry cough, which caused him to self-quarantine the Saturday prior to his test. He said it was the right thing to do.

“It was really slow for the first four days and then I had one really bad day where I was coughing a lot during the day time, temperature spiked to 102… and then since then it’s been back to very little.”

The 59-year-old said he still had a fever as of Monday night and he plans to stay away from people for about another week.

His message for everyone: “It’s not a death sentence for most of us; you can’t panic, don’t be paranoid.”