Journalist Alice Stockton-Rossini hosted her 90th birthday for her mother last month in New Jersey. At the time, he had no idea he would be infected with coronavirus while covering an explosion in New Rochelle, New York.
Stockton-Rossini later tested positive for coronavirus and says he believes he infected other people at the party on March 8. Two people have died and six others have tested positive, all related to the holiday, she said.
Those who tested positive were also her parents and brother-in-law, who is 56 years old and is in a hospital in New York City with a ventilator. He was not at the party.
" I didn't know how fast the virus would spread. I had no idea at all ," she told CNN. " And it's scary. And it's dizzying. And it's not fun to live with the fact that you can make someone extremely sick ."
The party, which took place at a church on Long Beach Island, was attended by about 25 of her mother's friends.
â??The day after the holiday, my mother got sick badly ,â? Stockton-Rossini, the reporter for 710 WOR, said. " And she had no symptoms like the ones we had heard of. There was a blockage and a lot of fever. She stayed sick for a few days. When the fever increased, they took her to the hospital, where she tested positive for coronavirus."
Social gatherings were not banned at the time, she said. Now she knows how important it is for people to practice social distancing. She urged people to be vigilant because not everyone has symptoms similar to those reported extensively.
â??Every member of my family has tested positive, except the boy,â? she said. "Not all of us have the same symptoms. They really need to test people who have a range of symptoms, not just those who have: fever, cough and rupture."
