Florida woman who feared she had coronavirus tests positive for flu

SANFORD, Fla. — Amid global concerns about the coronavirus, a Florida woman in Sanford said she’s worried she’s one of more than 85,000 people who have gotten sick.

Update 7:34 p.m. EST March 1: A Florida woman who feared she had coronavirus has tested positive for influenza A, her daughter confirmed with WFTV Sunday.

Tracy Weiss’ daughter said her mother was retested for the flu, and that test confirmed she is positive for the virus.

Original story: Tracy Weiss told WFTV through FaceTime from a hospital that a doctor told her she showed symptoms related to the virus.

Weiss said she’s frustrated because she has all the symptoms of the coronavirus but hasn’t been tested for it.

Weiss said she was visiting friends in Atlantic Beach this week and thought she was coming down with a cold.

“I just started to feel like I was just having allergies, a little bit of a runny nose, scratchy throat,” Weiss said.

Weiss left Wednesday and started driving to Naples, but an hour later, she felt worse.

“I started to feel like I was on fire and I was burning up. I knew I was sick and I needed to get to a hospital,” Weiss said.

Weiss checked herself into the closest hospital she could find, Central Florida Regional in Sanford.

“The first thing they asked me was had I been traveling internationally? I said no, but I had been in contact with some Chinese citizens who have been ill,” Weiss said.

Weiss said doctors tested her for the flu and strep throat. When both came back negative, she said, the infectious disease doctor told her they were going to test her for coronavirus.

But Weiss said that never happened because the Florida Department of Health said it wasn’t necessary.

“I was told, ‘FDH said no,’ I didn’t need to be tested because even though the Chinese citizens I came in contact with were sick, none of them had confirmed cases,” Weiss said.

Weiss said she is now in isolation at the hospital and doesn’t know if she has the coronavirus or not.

“I don’t understand how they’re handling my case at all. I meet all the criteria,” Weiss said. “They even talked about sending me home yesterday, and I got very upset about it."

The Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee has not commented to WFTV about Weiss’ case and why she has not been tested.

There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida.

Cox Media Group