'Fear was my biggest problem,' the 63-year-old singer said.
Gloria Estefan tested positive for COVID-19 after just one outing. The 63-year-old singer recently took to Instagram to reveal that after she left to have an outdoor meal with a few family members -- an outing that included a mask-less encounter with a fan -- she tested positive for the virus.
"In the past few weeks I have been one of the victims of COVID. October 30 was the only time I ever went out. The reason I'm sharing this is I want you to know how highly contagious this is. I wear my mask everywhere," she explained. "I went to a restaurant outdoors with some family, four of us. Everybody was negative and we wore masks all the way to the table and when we left."
"The only thing I can imagine happening is that someone came up to me when I was eating and tapped me on the shoulder," Estefan continued. "They were very close. They had no mask. They were telling me beautiful things. But that's the only thing I have done outside my enclosure here, my quarantine, [and] my studio, everyone there is negative as well."
Estefan noticed something wasn't right less than a week later when she lost her senses of taste and smell.
"My poor chef was the victim of me telling her that the chicken that she made me tasted like nothing. I still didn't realize it until the next day when my breakfast tasted like nothing and then my soap I couldn't smell," she recalled. "Then I started freaking out a little bit, like we all have been because the fear is the biggest part of this whole thing."
She ended up testing positive a few days later and locked herself away on the second floor of her house. Though it was a scary experience, Estefan said she's "very lucky" she had mild symptoms.
"The only symptoms I had were the loss of smell and taste and a little bit of a cough," she said. "I can't say that I feel bad."
Estefan credited her mild symptoms to both wearing a mask and the attention she pays to her immune system. Even before her COVID-19 diagnosis, Estefan took C, D and B12 vitamins, as well as Zinc and melatonin, daily. She also religiously used mouthwash and made sure to keep herself hydrated. She has since tested negative twice.
"I just want to say I'm very thankful. I have so much to be thankful for," she said. "... Right now I know we're all in a very big spike in Miami, it's tough here now. The hospitals are full. These are the people that are really suffering from the very tough cases of COVID. I was very lucky."
Estefan ended her message by encouraging people to implement COVID-19 precautions into their daily lives, while not succumbing to fear of the virus.
"So please, everybody, wear your masks, try to stay six feet away and protect yourselves as well as you can," she said. "But also those of you who maybe are having this, fear was my biggest problem since we don't know what's going to happen and sometimes you get very afraid [about] if you you're going to be one of those cases. But we've gotta grab fear and shake it and just do whatever you can to keep your immune system as healthy as you can."
"I just wanted you to know in case I can be helpful in whatever way," Estefan continued. "I love you all. Stay healthy, stay safe, and [I'm] looking forward to a better year next year for sure."
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