Gloria Estefan has been a “victim of Covid”, as she explained she tested positive for the virus last month after she visited a restaurant with some of her family and had an encounter with a stranger.
The 63-year-old singer revealed this week she tested positive for coronavirus last month, after she visited a restaurant with some of her family and had an encounter with a stranger whom she thinks gave her the virus.
She said in an Instagram video: "In the past few weeks, I have been one of the victims of Covid.
The reason I'm sharing this is that I want you to know how highly contagious this is - I wear my mask everywhere.
I went to a restaurant outdoors with some family - three, four of us - and everybody was negative. We wore masks all the way to the table.
"When we left, the only thing that I can imagine happened is that someone came up to me when I was eating and tapped me on the shoulder. They were very close, they had no mask and they were telling me beautiful things. But that's the only thing that I have done outside of my enclosure here.”
Gloria realised something was wrong a few weeks later when she lost her sense of taste and smell, but said she didn’t have any other symptoms aside from a “little bit of a cough”.
She added: "My poor chef was the victim of me telling her that the chicken that she made me tasted like nothing. I still didn't realise it 'till the next day when my breakfast tasted like nothing and then I couldn't smell [my soap]. Then I started freaking out a little bit like we all have been because the fear is the biggest part of this whole thing.
“I locked myself away on the second floor of my house, didn't let anybody up for two weeks, I can tell you that.
“Fortunately, I'm very lucky that the only symptoms that I had were the loss of smell and taste and a little bit of a cough.
“I can't say that I felt bad ... my immune system is always firing on all pistons."
The “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” singer concluded her video by urging people to “wear masks” at all times.
She explained: "I was very lucky. But I just wanted to share with you the fact that I was in quarantine and the one day I went out and met with one person that was not wearing a mask - I even held my breath, quite honestly, through their talk - something must have happened.
“Wear your masks, stay six feet away and protect yourselves.
“Fear was my biggest problem because we don't know what's going to happen and sometimes you really get very afraid if you're going to be one of those cases.
“But you know, you've got to grab fear and shake it and do whatever you can to keep your immune system as healthy as you can.
"But anyway, I just wanted you to know just in case I can be helpful in whatever way. I love you all. Stay healthy, stay safe and looking forward to a better year next year for sure."