Brisbane Musician Jaguar Jonze Details Life As A “Virtual Hospital Patient” With COVID-19
"I am wearing a temperature tracker around the clock and also have a wireless vital signs reader which feeds data to the hospital."
After being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, Brisbane musician Jaguar Jonze has shared details of what it’s like being monitored by doctors from afar, describing herself as a “virtual hospital patient”.
Jonze believes she contracted coronavirus while on a plane home from the US — ironically, she had left the country early to avoid catching the virus abroad. She had been in the US for a ten-show tour, which was cancelled after three dates and had been scheduled to include finish at SXSW.
After feeling fever symptoms, she was tested: on Monday, she provided an update, writing most symptoms had rescinded. “I am now at Day 10 and doing really well with only a chesty cough and fatigue as my remaining symptoms,” she wrote on Instagram.
While her symptoms included mild chest pains, chills, aches and “hectic fatigue”, Jonze remained at home to leave hospital beds for those more in need.
Instead, she checks in with a nurse over video chat twice daily, and wears a temperature tracker and has a vital signs reader which alerts doctors as to her condition.
Jonze says she has to keep up quarantine until she hasn’t had symptoms for at least 3 days, and then can be discharged. She thanked her fans for their concern, and said she’d been “working on something” to pass the time.
Previously, Jonze said she shared her positive status to ‘break stigma’ around the virus and to ask people to still treat people with COVID-19 as people.
“To the insensitive questions, please reconsider before you send them,” she wrote. “It can be easy to feel dissociated from the virus, and also easy to feel dissociated from me too, but I am a human and the last few weeks have taken their toll.”
“I’m focused on doing my bit to help where I can, and recover at the same time. We’re all in this together and it can happen to anyone. I understand that we can feel panic in this pandemic but think twice before sending loaded, blame-shifting questions and messages. ”
“I’ve had people say I’m brave for sharing and they haven’t told people about their own case because of the concern for how the public will treat them. There is no need for a COVID-19 stigma right now. Fear should translate to diligence rather than prejudice. Focus on protecting yourself and society.”
Read Jonze’s full post below, and revisit her and Hermitude’s wonderful Like A Version of ‘Heart Shaped Box’ here.