When Macon businessman Warren Selby Jr. tested positive for COVID-19 this past summer, he said he was shocked.
“I had a little bit of a runny nose and a scratchy throat, and you know being precautionary, I went by and was tested,” said Selby, president and CEO of Warren Associates, Inc. “And I said, ‘You know, I’m just going to make sure these are some allergies or a slight cold.’
“And they called me back and said, you’re positive for COVID-19 — I about fell out.”
Selby, who’s now in his 20th year as board chairman of Macon Regional Crimestoppers, got the results by telephone about 30 minutes after he was tested, Aug. 31.
By that evening, he was running a temperature of 101 degrees, which lasted a short time.
“I never thought I would have caught it,” Selby said. “I haven’t been in a restaurant since March of this year, and I wear a mask. I’m one of those who can confirm that you can catch it even being under the best of circumstances. And I don’t know where I got it from.”
Fortunately for Selby, he didn’t experience any severe symptoms.
“The main symptom that I had was just lack of energy,” he said.
The lack of energy he felt was different from fatigue.
“With fatigue you can rest, recover,” Selby said. “For example, I play racquetball. I can say that I’m fatigued after I play racquetball for an hour. It’s a very strenuous sport to play; a lot of movement; a lot of activity. So, it’s a good fatigue.
“But the symptoms that I felt with COVID were just simply … My energy level was so low, it was hard to motivate yourself to hardly do anything, and what was strange about it was I had no headaches I had no respiratory. I had no intestinal, digestive issues.”
Quarantined
He quarantined for 10 days and worked from home.
“One thing that I made myself do that was very hard … but I walked for probably a half a mile every day,” he said.
Selby made a full recovery.
Thankfully, Selby said, his wife did not contract the virus, testing negative for COVID-19 after multiple tests.
“They were the strangest symptoms I’ve ever encountered,” Selby said. “I’ve had the flu. I’ve had colds. “Those type viruses, you seem to find yourself getting a little better each day. You know how it is. You’ll have a runny nose, then you’ll have congestion, and it kind of works its way out. But boy, this just seemed like every day, it was kind of steady.”
Doing the right things
Selby said he did all the right things: social distancing, washing hands, hand sanitizing, mask wearing, avoiding large crowds, attending board meetings virtually.
At work, protocols were put in place, including daily temperature checks, requiring the filling out of a COVID-19 form that asked questions from whether an employee was running a fever to any recent exposure to someone who had tested positive, and closing the lobby.
“As I look back on what could I have done differently, I don’t know if I could have done anything differently,” Selby said.
He doesn’t think healthcare professionals fully understand how COVID-19 is transmitted and he wonders whether he can be reinfected.
“I think it’s given me a greater appreciation for the precautionary measures that we take because you do understand the affect it has on you once you do catch the virus — meaning that it is wise to sanitize, social distance, wear the masks, if that what’s takes. In my mind, we need to do all that we can to prevent the spread and to protect yourself, and at this point, we’re dealing with a virus that we don’t fully understand. So just do everything we can.”
On Aug. 31, the day Selby tested positive for COVID-19, Bibb County had reported cumulative cases of 5,404 and 121 deaths to the Georgia Department of Health. On Friday, Bibb County reported 6,550 cumulative COVID-19 cases and 194 deaths.
Despite gains in the battle against COVID-19, healthcare professionals have expressed concerns over a resurgence in coming months.