Brooke Baldwin becomes second CNN anchor to test positive for coronavirus despite practicing social distancing
CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin has tested positive for the novel coronavirus that was last month declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. She’s the second anchor from the network to test positive for the disease.
Baldwin took to Instagram on Friday to announce her diagnosis. “I've tested positive for the coronavirus,” she wrote. “I am OKAY. It came on suddenly yesterday afternoon. Chills, aches, fever.”
“I've been social distancing. Doing ALL the things we're being told to do. Still — it got me. I'm healthy... No underlying conditions. Honestly, I feel like one of the lucky ones. I look forward to being back on [television] and seeing you real soon. And shout out to the doctors and the nurses who are doing the real work right now,” she further wrote.
Baldwin’s colleague, primetime anchor Chris Cuomo, has also been recovering from the virus. The 49-year-old newscaster who revealed he tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, appeared on CNN's Global Town Hall broadcast Thursday night from his basement to give an update on his health. He said he had lost 13 pounds in three days.
“I'm a big guy, I started off at 230 pounds,” Cuomo said. “My wife is feeding me like we were still in the dating phase. So it's not like I'm hurting for nutrition. I'm eating and drinking constantly. I'm just sweating it out, and it's the sickness.”
He added that he was still suffering from a fever, profuse sweating, headaches and pains in his face. “Literally my vision in my left eye is a little blurry from pressure, from sinus pressure and some manifestation of the virus,” he said.
Cuomo further said that statistically, the majority of people who contract the disease were likely to be okay. “You suffer when you have this at home unless you are ridiculously lucky statistically,” he said. “So, yeah, 80 percent, we're going to make it through, but the idea that it's easy, so you can be nonchalant, that's so misleading.”
As per the latest figures, more than 265,000 people in the United States have been affected by the coronavirus. The death toll has exceeded 6,700.