‘It’s just not worth it,’ says Saskatoon man with COVID-19 ahead of long weekend

“I’ve been in this room for 15 days. Fifteen days in a single room. Many with a fever, wicked cough, stomach issues, headaches and nearly always tired.”

That’s the opening line of a Facebook post written by Saskatoon’s Kyle Gunderson who contracted COVID-19 at a curling bonspiel in the city between March 13-15.

“It was becoming more apparent that things were getting pretty serious here. They had cancelled the Junos on the Wednesday or Thursday before it and that really makes you take pause,” he said about his decision to go to the bonspiel.

“So it was a fair bit of thought that I put into it and figured, you know, I’m young and healthy, there aren’t many cases in Saskatchewan. So, I was like, you know what? Let’s take the chance. It happened to be my birthday and it’s a bonspiel I look forward to every year so I figured you know we are going to do what we can to prevent it and I just got unlucky.”

Now, with the long weekend ahead of us, people having been stuck inside for three weeks and the seemingly slowing spread of the virus, Gunderson believes more people might be starting to think about going out. But after battling the virus for over two weeks and still not being completely over it, he wants people to trust him that it just isn’t worth it.

“Even though it may be just one person you are having coffee with, or your parents you are going to go have dinner with. It’s not worth that risk because every person you interact with is just another risk of spreading the disease or getting the disease,” he said.

“Because it’s not just about actually contracting it, it’s about spreading it. That was my biggest fear was having spread it to people. I think that is something people don’t think about is the weight of possibly spreading it to others, particularly those who are immunocompromised.”

If you are one of those people going a little stir crazy and are thinking this long weekend might be the best time to visit your family, or that the virus can’t be worse than isolation, allow Gunderson to, once and for all, tell you that the “symptoms were definitely worse.”

“So long story short the message is don’t risk it. It’s not worth it going out. You can delay Easter, you can do digital gatherings. It’s just not worth meeting people in public right now.”