PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Pasco County’s first coronavirus patient spoke Wednesday about his experience with COVID-19.

Gene DellaSala, 46, said the virus has impacted him like a really bad cold or even the regular flu.

Speaking to partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, DellaSala said he is on Tylenol every few hours and drinking plenty of fluids.

Overall, he said he feels exhausted.

“I’m trying to work as much as I can but I get pretty weak after an hour or two of trying to concentrate on stuff,” DellaSala said. “I know I have to go within my limits because I want to get better, as soon as I can I don’t want to keep being sick like this."

He added he has to be really careful around his family – he has a wife and two kids.

They’ve also been told to stay home but he said he is doing everything possible to protect them from catching it too.

DellaSala said he had a client over to his house who had recently traveled to China.

He didn’t know it at the time, but said a friend of the client contacted him a week later saying he had the coronavirus.

At that point, DellaSala said he’d already started feeling sick. He immediately contacted his doctor and got tested. Now he’ll be tested every few days until it comes back negative. 

He says he just wants everyone to be really cautious.

“Try not to come in contact with anyone that's traveled to China,” DellaSala said. “Or outside of the United States right now, I know it’s kind of hard to do that. But we kind of have to be a little more cautious about these things to get this under control."

On Thursday, DellaSala will be tested once again to see if the virus is still active in his system.

He said he goes to the Pasco County Health Department and someone meets him in the parking lot to do the swabs.

He’ll be cleared once he has two negative tests.