UPTON, Mass. — With eight children plus Mom and Dad, Thanksgiving’s always a crowd for the Collins family, even when it’s just immediate family. But this year, it will only be immediate family gathering around the holiday table, thanks to a thorough visit this month from COVID-19.
“So we are two and a half weeks of being strictly quarantined in our house,” said Liz Collins, a registered nurse at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
It was two and a half weeks ago that Collins’ oldest daughter, also a nurse, tested positive for COVID-19. By the next day, Collins’ husband fell ill.
“My husband started complaining of headaches and body aches,” she said.
He wound up bedridden for a week with respiratory symptoms. The infection then rapidly spread through the rest of the family.
“Out of the eight people who live here, six of us have tested positive,” Collins said.
The only school-age child not infected: Jonathan, a fourth-grader. However, that status isn’t doing him any good when it comes to attending school. Like his siblings, Jonathan has to learn remotely until the quarantine is over.
And that’s just the beginning of the family’s disruptions. They’ve had to rely on neighbors and delivery services for groceries, while daycare for a non-infected granddaughter is out. And then there are the lost hours of work.
“It’s about two and half weeks of work I missed,” Collins said. “My oldest daughter missed two weeks of work.”
At Logan Airport Tuesday, Boston 25 News ran into several travelers heading home for Thanksgiving.
“I’m going to lay on the couch, eat turkey, eat stuffing, watch football and hang out with my parents,” said one.
“We’re going home for Thanksgiving, just a family holiday,” added another, as he prepared to leave for what he said would be a quarantined family holiday in Saudi Arabia.
Liz Collins has family in Massachusetts but will not be getting together with them this year.
“I would highly recommend people not travel,” she said. “When we’re having 2,000 deaths a day, you don’t know how your family members are going to be affected by COVID. It is not worth it at all.”
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