Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, has opened up for the first time about how she contracted COVID-19 on the set of a movie.
The mother of four also infected her daughter and son, who has an asthmatic condition, with the respiratory disease.
The actress, 42, shared her experience on the popular filmmakers’ WhatsApp group, Filmic, while reacting to the debate on how Nollywood can adhere strictly to the health guidelines of COVID-19, before reopening productions on Saturday.
“I hardly fall ill and so when I left the set and started having chills the next day or so, I knew something wasn’t right. I thought it might be stress,” she was quoted by Vanguard.
“This was on Monday, August 3, 2020. I waited till Tuesday and it got worse. I was shaking uncontrollably and my temperature was going through the roof.
“My spirit told me immediately, this is not malaria or fever. I have been extremely careful and paranoid about this COVID-19 stuff. So I told hubby I needed to be tested immediately. I have a son that has Asthma!
“They came to test me on Wednesday and my result came out on Thursday evening, Positive. My world crashed. I felt crazy and empty.
“My symptoms were high fever and chills… luckily no other. But it was so bad, they contemplated coming to evacuate me as my viral load was high and I wasn’t getting better … but God arose for me.
“So they had to come test the whole family … I had infected my daughter and asthmatic son! My God showed up for me as my son is asymptotic, so positive but not sick! My daughter lost her smell and taste and had severe diarrhea. All has stopped now, thank God.
“We are all now in remission. It’s physically, spiritually and emotionally exhausting as the doctors tell you it’s a 50/50 chance. Nothing you do really saves you. You can only take the vitamins, manage the symptoms and hope your body fights.
“Please this thing is real and we must come together to find the safest way to work and protect ourselves. I was one of the most careful persons you’d ever meet concerning COVID-19.
“Imagine if I believed because of that I couldn’t have been infected… I wish I wasn’t … but I was … I could have been going out and kept on infecting others,” she recounted.