A Pennsylvania family's holiday gathering turned into a COVID-19 super spreader event after 18 family members tested positive for the virus.
Darlene Reynolds, 55, woke up on December 26 — one day before her family was set to visit her Milmont Park home — with a scratchy throat but no fever, she told WPVI-TV.
"I had no fever because I kept checking it — no fever, no fever, no fever. I said, 'I'll keep a distance since I have a tiny little cough,' " Reynolds said to the local news outlet.
Soon after, other family members began getting sick.
"So we were sick, but we didn't know we had COVID. We could've had the flu, but it was scary," Reynolds said. "We got tested and we tested positive. And then my husband tested positive the next day. And then [my daughter] was getting sick and she tested positive and my son tested positive."
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Within days, 18 of Darlene's family members, ranging in age from 1 to 62, had become sick with COVID-19.
Currently, Darlene's husband Steve is hospitalized with the virus, according to a GoFundMe page set up by family.
"Even when Steve comes out Covid has a major recovery time especially with all that his body has been through," the page reads. "We continue to pray for a full recovery for Steve and for his wife Darlene to have the strength each passing day without her husband at home."
"He's headed in the right direction; he'll need oxygen when he comes home," Reynolds' daughter, Joy Purdie, told WPVI-TC of Steve's recovery.
As of Tuesday night, the GoFundMe had raised $4,626 toward its $15,000 goal.
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