MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – South Carolina’s Seventh District Congressman Tom Rice says he has COVID-19 along with his wife and his youngest son.
Congressman Tom Rice tells News13 COVID-19 hit his youngest son the hardest after he began showing symptoms following a round of golf Sunday.
He says his wife is in the middle of her symptoms now but that all three of them are on the mend.
“I feel fine. The disease didn’t really affect me very much,” he said.
The virus started as a low-grade fever and a cough for the congressman.
“I did lose my sense of taste and smell, so I’m anxious for that to come back. Other than that, I really, you know, I’m a little run-down but other than that, I really don’t have any lasting effects,” said Rep. Rice.
Rep. Rice says his son was the first to show symptoms and the first to be diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Well, we went out and played golf and by the end of the round he was saying he didn’t feel well, and Monday morning he got up not doing well. We were at a cabin, which was very isolated. We really have been trying to, you know, stay out of large crowds, and you know, social distance.”
On Tuesday, they went to the doctor for his son to be tested.
“His doctor came out in a hazmat suit out in the parking lot, and said, he just looked at him and said, I think you’ve got it,” he said.
After, he and his wife also tested positive.
“I said well if he’s got it, I have it too! So, he ran the test on my son, he’s not my doctor, he ran the test on my son on Tuesday morning and Friday he got the results back,” the congressman said.
Although he was in Washington, D.C. recently, he thinks he most likely caught the virus along the Grand Strand. He says he and his family have been trying to trace back where they went during the last week or so.
“We kind of have. I mean, I was in Washington, I left Washington I think it was, I don’t remember the exact date, but it was a Thursday, this Thursday, I think 3 weeks ago, and so my son actually started really having symptoms nine days, ten days after that,” said Rep. Rice.
Now that he has the virus, the congressman says he does not think local and national officials have reopened things too soon, nor does he believe people have been relaxing following social distancing guidelines.
“We asked people to do this for six weeks,” he said. “That’s what we asked them to do on the front end. We need you to do the social distancing, we need to close down these businesses, and we’re trying to flatten the curve. Well, we did that.”
Congressman Rice says he and his family have been taking over-the-counter cold medicine and pain relievers to treat the virus, and he has been washing his hands more and social distancing since the beginning of the pandemic.
His son’s fever broke Saturday and the congressman says he, along with Rice and his wife, are on the mend.