International superstar, Gloria Estefan, is the latest celebrity to come forward with their Coronavirus diagnosis, but Estefan’s reveal comes with a warning to her heavily Latino audience, “I want you to know how highly contagious this is.”
“In the past few weeks, I have been one of the victims of Covid,” said The Red Table Talk: The Estefans co-host in her latest IGTV installment before detailing the precautions she had taken prior to the diagnosis. The Cuban singer revealed her diagnosis came about when she realized she had lost her sense of taste and smell around November 5th. She was tested three days later, and the test confirmed her biggest fear, that she had COVID-19.
The singer stressed that she and her family have been strictly following CDC guidelines like wearing a mask, washing hands, and staying socially distanced to those not in her household. However, she admits, she let her guard down once, in a restaurant where she and her family dined outdoors, as she was eating, she was approached by someone “who said beautiful things,” but wasn’t wearing a mask. Though it was a very quick encounter, she believes that may have been where she caught the virus.
Estefan says she is “very thankful” because besides the loss of taste and smell, she remained asymptomatic and has since tested negative twice. She admits she didn’t share her diagnosis earlier because she didn’t “want to take attention away from the nurse heroes.”
She goes on to share that she owes her wearing a mask for the low viral load, which might be the reason she didn’t experience covid’s most adverse effects. Her reveal comes at a time when covid rates are surging across the country, and cities, like Los Angeles, have been met with criticism about shutting down outdoor dining in order to prevent the spread of covid during the holidays.