Lessons learned after COVID-19 diagnosis? ‘This isn’t a game’

73-year-old essential worker said he took all the precautions he could

Amador Angel Luna knew how bad a COVID-19 infection could be. That’s why the 73-yearold essential worker took all the precautions he could, even wearing a mask even inside the home in Oakland’s Fruitvale district that he shares with six relatives.

None of that worked, and now, six weeks after he and several co-workers at a San Francisco construction job tested positive for the virus, he knows all too well how even a case that doesn’t require hospitalization can set a person back. After his positive diagnosis, Luna stayed home for three weeks from his job. That included three days that were among the worst he ever has experienced.

“It was day and night, lots of fever, lots of sweating, headaches, really intense sweating,” he said. “Shivers that shake your whole body. I couldn’t control the shivering.”

Luna’s case was another positive test for Fruitvale, the neighborhood with the most cases in Alameda County, which in turn has the most cases in the

Bay Area. The 94601 ZIP code, which encompasses Fruitvale and stretches between 23th and 55th avenues, has 395.6 cases per 10,000 residents, more three times the rate for Alameda County.

Many of those cases have been among the Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants that call that neighborhood home, such as Mexican-born Luna. His is a painful case study in how coronavirus has exploded in the Latino community, where essential workers living in crowded housing are at the highest risk. Latinos make up 61% of cases in Alameda County with a known race and ethnicity, yet they arejust 22% of the population.

Three times a day, Luna would check his temperature, his pulse, even the level of oxygen in his blood. He was grateful the virus didn’t seem to get at his lungs, and he never had to be hospitalized.

He went back to work during the fourth week, and back to volunteering on Saturdays and Sundays in an effort organized by Oakland Councilman Noel Gallo, picking up trash and furniture abandoned throughout Fruitvale.

He’s also planning to go get tested again soon — assuming the largely outdoor testing cen

ters in Fruitvale remain open. A new effort planned for today and Sunday to test as many as 4,000 neighborhood residents, spearheaded by the University of California San Francisco and The Unity Council and hosted by La Clínica de la Raza, was postponed because of the unhealthful air quality caused by California wildfires.

While he waits for a final

clean test result, Luna is keeping up his efforts to avoid contagion, wary of reports about reinfections or the return of symptoms weeks after a patient thought he was healthy. One of the family members he lives with had shown symptoms well before Luna’s positive tests, but none has shown symptoms since his diagnosis.

“I get home in the afternoon from work, I disinfect my work shoes, disinfect my hands and hair, and immediately I take a shower, and I put all my clothes in a plastic bag,” he said.

To anyone who questions the severity of the virus or the likelihood of infection, Luna has a warning. Follow all the recommendations and safety guidelines, he said, because the virus is so contagious he still doesn’t know where or when he was exposed.

“This isn’t a game; this is real, totally real,” he said. “Having lived it, I would like to scream at (people who doubt this) because this thing is terrible, and I didn’t even have it that bad.”