First Covid Case Diagnosed in Shreveport on March 11, 2020
Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the first Covid-19 case in Louisiana. That patient was from New Orleans. But on Thursday, March 11, it will be one year since a Shreveport man was diagnosed with the virus.
David Langston tells KEEL News he contracted the virus on Feburary 21st while traveling through the Atlanta Airport.
Langston sent us this timeline on what happened after that:
I went to Velocity Care on Youree Drive 3 separate times feeling symptoms, getting worse each day on:February 27March 4March 9March 9, at 5 PM went to Emergency Room at Christus on Bert Kouns.
On March 10th, a CT Scan was done of his lungs and the results came back showing he was symptomatic of COVID-19. At this point, it was an unconfirmed case, but he was isolated in a special ventilated room. A nasal swab COVID test was done and it was transported to Baton Rouge for confirmation of COVID-19.
He got the positive result back on March 11th. But later that evening he was well enough to be discharged. He went home and went into quarantine.
Langston tells KEEL he was fever free on March 14th.
On April 3rd he got a negative Covid test and was released from quarantine.
The next day, he made his first donation of convalescent plasma to provide antibodies for a dying patient. He has subsequently donated plasma many times since.
Dr. Martha Whyte with the Office of Public Health and Langston joined us to talk about this journey.