New Jersey patient fighting coronavirus unable to talk from illness

The New Jersey health care worker who was the Garden State’s first coronavirus case says he’s unable to talk because his body is still too exhausted from battling the dangerous bug.

“My lung is still too weak. One talk could take me days to recover,” James Cai, 32, told The Post on Tuesday in a text message.

The Fort Lee physician’s assistant spoke out the day before about how he’s been “getting worse” since he was admitted last week to Hackensack University Medical Center, WCBS reported.

Though he has no underlying health issues, Cai said he’s been struggling to beat the virus, which has come with a number of symptoms.

“The virus is everything,” he told the outlet. “Diarrhea, watery eyes, shortness of breath, chest pain, you name it. High fever. … Every day is getting worse.”

Cai said that he believes he came down with the bug while attending a medical conference last weekend at the Westin in Times Square.

He first visited an urgent-care clinic, then went to the emergency room at the Hackensack hospital, where he was still fighting the virus, according to the report.

Cai is one of 15 “presumptive positive” cases in the state, where there are also 20 pending tests for the virus and 31 other residents under investigation for possible contamination, Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted Tuesday.

“Presumptive positive” means that a case tested positive at a local or state lab but has not been confirmed by an official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab test.

“It happened so quick,” Cai said of coming down with the virus.

He warned that not everyone was taking the epidemic seriously enough as the virus spread to 11 people in the Garden State.

“People have to take the coronavirus seriously. It’s very serious,” Cai told WCBS.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday declared a state of emergency in the state to enable “agencies and departments to utilize state resources to assist affected communities responding to and recovering from COVID-19 cases.”

Meanwhile, across the country, the virus has infected more than 700 people and caused at least 26 deaths, CNN reported.