CALGARY -- A Banff woman who went to Brooklyn, New York for a vacation is now stuck inside a friend’s apartment after being told to self-isolate due to coronavirus concerns.
Amy Reynolds says she’s been sick since Sunday night, when a high fever and sore throat came on.
By the next morning, she said she knew something was off, so Reynolds went to see a doctor covered by her insurance.
“He said if my symptoms got worse, I should go to the emergency room,” Reynolds said. “And then they took a swab and told me to go home.”
She was told she does not have influenza, but that swab was not tested for COVID-19. “I was shocked to hear from the front desk nurses that they were not going to send out the test,” she said.
There have been test backlogs in the United States and many residents have complained the situation is a lot worse than the numbers project due to a lack of solid medical analysis.
Brooklyn is also near New Rochelle, an area that has been contained by the government.
Those points, along with her symptoms, told Reynolds that she could be in danger.
“I’m trying to do the responsible thing at this point,” Reynolds said. “I don’t want to go on an Air Canada flight and infect a bunch of people on an airplane and come back to Calgary with it.”
Instead, she is taking the doctor’s advice to self-isolate for two weeks. That’s without a diagnosis of COVID-19, even though Reynolds is exhibiting the signs.
For now, she’ll be stuck in the apartment for weeks. She doesn't know when she'll return to Banff, but says when she does she believes it'll be on her own dime. After four days of trying, Reynolds says she still hasn’t heard back from Air Canada.
