Peter Poulos is the owner of Christos’ Pizzeria and recalls his experience as one of the first cases of COVID-19 in NSW’s current outbreak.
Mr. Poulos was having dinner with his father-in-law and wife at his pizzeria in Sydney’s inner-west suburb of Paddington one Monday on June 21.
Little did he know that NSW Health would call two days later to advise that he and his wife were close contacts of a confirmed COVID-19 case and to self-isolate immediately.
“We didn’t think it was going to happen to us,” he tells the Sydney Morning Herald.
Poulos closed his pizzeria that day and ordered his staff to do the same – get tested and self-isolate – but it wasn’t until Saturday that things would turn for the worse when he woke up with a dull headache.
“I don’t get headaches,” he says, recalling that he thought, “‘That’s strange’.”
“And then I started getting the fevers and chills.”
His wife, suffering the same symptoms, spent half the day in bed.
His 89-year-old father-in-law coughed so incessantly that he wound up in hospital on an oxygen tank within a few days.
It was a rough time for Poulos: getting his temperature, oxygen levels and heart rate measured daily by doctors at NSW Health.
A cough developed after about two weeks but disappeared within a few days along with the rest of his symptoms.
His father, Christo, who founded the pizzeria 35 years ago in 1986, died from other causes during the first lockdown.
Emotional support visits are hard to maintain during a lockdown and Mr. Poulos is no stranger to the difficulties of these restrictions, but he continues to support his widowed 92-year-old mother without complaints.
“It is what it is,” he said.
His business has taken a significant hit since the pandemic began 18 months ago.
In accordance with NSW Health advice, he and his wife emerged from isolation three days after their symptoms disappeared. Then they went back to work.
Source: SMH
