Coronavirus: Whoopi Goldberg co-hosts 'The View' while under self-quarantine at home, says she's healthy
March 18’s episode of ABC’s daytime talk show ‘The View’ saw Whoopi Goldberg co-host while being self-quarantined at home. Goldberg was being cautious, as one should be when self-quarantining has been heavily suggested as a measure to stop the spread of novel coronavirus pandemic.
Goldberg reportedly skipped March 17’s episode for a doctor’s visit. While she didn’t reveal if she was tested for COVID-19, an insider told Page Six that the visit was because she’s “taking extra precaution after her battle with double pneumonia last year.”
“As of right now, there are more than 6,500 cases across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands with 115 fatalities. Life as we know it just keeps changing every single day, which is why our fearless leader, Whoopi, is joining us from home now,” said co-host Sunny Hostin, welcoming Goldberg to explain further.
Goldberg, via a video feed from her home in New Jersey, said, “I went to the doctor yesterday just to make sure and he gives me the all-clear to go to work. And I’m getting ready to do it and then I start hearing these inconsistent messages from everyone… from [the New York] mayor who’s saying, ‘We’re going to be in place for now. New York is going to get locked down’.”
“And then you had Governor [Andrew] Cuomo say, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ And I just felt like if I was going to really try to figure out where it was ok to come in and my brain said, ‘You know what? Until they can figure out what they’re doing, I should not go in,’ so that’s why I’m here,” Goldberg added.
“I am healthy,” Goldberg further said. “My doctor was very annoyed with me. He said, ‘I just gave you the okay, why are you back?’ I said, ‘Because I need an okay-okay.’ So he gave me the okay okay, but I just felt like, with all the inconsistency between the governor and the mayor, it wasn’t good for me.”
While co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain continued to shoot the show live from its New York studio, Joy Behar is taking time off. “I’m in a higher-risk group because of my age, but I’m perfectly healthy. I’m doing this myself. Luckily I don’t have to worry about childcare and things like that and also, I have enough money to take off some time,” Behar said last week.
‘The View’ is one of the last remaining daytime talk shows that continues to air new episodes. Shows like ‘The Wendy Williams Show’, ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’, ‘The Tamron Hall Show’, and ‘Live with Kelly and Ryan’, have paused production in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
'The View' airs every day at 2 p.m. ET on ABC.