Coronavirus: 'It really hit me on the Monday, and put me to bed until Saturday'

A 36-year-old farmer with no underlying health issues was bedridden for almost a week with a suspected case of coronavirus.

The part-time farmer from Co Tyrone was approaching the end of lambing his flock of 150 ewes and 30 in-lamb hoggets when he started to feel unwell.

“My immune system probably wasn’t great because I hadn’t been getting much sleep for six weeks, so I didn’t think too much about it at the start,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The farmer, who wants to remain nameless, started to feel ill on the morning of Saturday, 14 March.

Not able to get out of bed

“I wasn’t feeling right the next day either, but I was able to keep going. It really hit me on the Monday, and it put me to bed. I wasn’t able to get out of bed until the Saturday.

“My temperature was going up and down, I was either freezing or roasting. I would have woken up in the middle of the night and the bed sheets would have been soaking with sweat. I was coughing after a few days and was as weak as water,” he said.

The coronavirus case was not officially confirmed as, under UK rules, testing is currently only reserved for hospital patients.

Almost two weeks after first showing symptoms, the farmer’s condition has improved, but his energy levels are not back to normal.

“I am definitely getting better, but I’m still not feeling up for going out to get things done on the farm,” he said.

There were six hoggets left to lamb when the farmer was left housebound and his wife and young children were able to keep on top of the farm work.

“I isolated myself in a room and they would have kept away as much as possible.

“Our family and neighbours were very good too, but my wife and kids had to self-isolate as well, so we couldn’t really allow anyone to come in to help them,” he said.

The Co Tyrone man doesn’t know where he picked up the infection, but he thinks it was when he was working off-farm.

“Farmers might think they are less susceptible to getting coronavirus because they are usually out in the open and away from other people.

“But any farmer who does get sick will be in a difficult situation because farming has to keep going on, and stock still need to be fed, no matter what,” he said.