CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE, Maine — NEWS CENTER Maine exclusively spoke with two young women in Cumberland County who are in quarantine due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Twenty-four-year-old Zoe Grant received a positive COVID-19 test result on Sunday, March 15; 21-year-old Madeline Biache tested negative but is showing the same symptoms as Grant.
The two friends had been in Cambridge, Mass. and believe they came into contact with someone who likely had the virus there. As of Sunday, there are 164 confirmed cases.
The two of them have been self-isolating at home in Cumberland County as soon as they started experiencing symptoms on Tuesday, March 10.
"The cough is kind of annoying, well, it's more than annoying. It's kind of awful," Grant said. "We've had some chest pain, some headache."
Biache says, "It's a lot of pressure in the chest and it feels like no matter how much I'm trying to breathe, it feels like I can't get an actual breath of air."
On Saturday, March 14, when their symptoms worsened, the two young women went to Maine Medical Center (MMC) in Portland to be tested for COVID-19. They say medical personnel at MMC seemed to be taking every precaution.
"They were very very cautious about contamination," Biache said. "Every employee was wearing a base layer of plastic gloves which they then sanitized those pairs of gloves, put another pair of gloves on over that, and then took the top gloves off before they left the room."
"They were in full hazmat suits with air pumps on the back," Grant said. "They have rubber booties too that they changed between rooms. There was no exchange between rooms, the rooms were all sealed off."
Grant and Biache say they've notified everyone who they were in close contact with over the past few weeks of their diagnosis.
They remain in high spirits and say they're keeping busy with crafts and cooking.
Grant said, "We've been taking NyQuil at night and using inhalers when needed. We've taken a lot of Tylenol and drinking a lot of Gatorade. That and waffles-- a lot of waffles!"
At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus
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