A British TV writer says his doctors have “no doubt” that he had coronavirus despite two tests coming back negative, according to a report.
Dominic Minghella — who created the UK show “Doc Martin — wrote in a blog post for Deadline that although none of his tests were positive, all of his symptoms were “consistent” with the deadly illness.
“No idea if the tests are faulty, or there is some other problem,” Minghella said. “I had a CT scan, the results of which they gave me to take home, and it’s all ‘consistent with Covid-19.’ With my symptoms the doctors were in no doubt.”
The 53-year-old said he first developed the chills one night, which he mistook for turning the heat down too low. But soon, he developed a 102-degree fever and a strange metallic taste in his mouth, as well as shortness of breath.
“I wasn’t moving, but when I did, I began to realize that I was breathless,” he said.
He said he was rushed to King’s College Hospital in London, where he was monitored in the coronavirus ward.
“Moving through the hospital, which I know usually to be teeming, was so strange,” Nobody anywhere. Every door locked. Obviously, there were people, behind doors, somewhere, quietly trying to live, quietly monitoring the just-about living. A weird absent-presence.”
But after two days of tests, the doctors were unable to confirm that he had the virus.
“There was no doubt it was Covid-19, but I had two tests which didn’t confirm it,” he said. “I heard of a guy on the same ward who had to have three before it was confirmed.”