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News and resources regarding COVID-19

Sioux City College Student Warns Others After Surge of Cases in the Iowa Great Lakes Region

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young_c19_victim_annie_krage.mp3
INTERVIEW: ANNIE KRAGE TALKS ABOUT COVID-19 AFTER TESTING POSITIVE

Dickinson County is one spot in Iowa seeing a surge of COVID-19.  The popular vacation area saw just seven cases before the Memorial Day Weekend.  Just four weeks later, there were more than 200 people infected. 

Information from the state coronavirus website on Tuesday showed 211 positive cases and two deaths. 

Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer talked to a young adult who says people of all ages need to heed health advice.  

Annie Krage’s first symptoms of the coronavirus appeared last Saturday, June 13th.

“I was just having some chest pain and then I thought it would go away.  The next day, it got worse and then a sore throat came with it.”

Krage, a 21-year-old University of Iowa student, started her summer in the Iowa Great Lakes.  She is now recovering at her parents home in Sioux City.

Krage says she first contacted her family physician.

“And, they recommended I should come in.  Then they said ‘you don’t have enough symptoms so we can’t test you’. "

"That was frustrating.”

So, Krage traveled an hour away to Sioux Center for screening through Test Iowa.

“It was easy.”

Two days later, the test confirmed Krage’s suspicions and that’s when the illness returned with a vengeance.

“This time with fevers, body aches really bad, chills, I couldn’t sleep.  Chills, throwing up, diarrhea, all flu-like symptoms.  And, that lasted two to three days.”

Krage believes she caught the virus from her summer roommate back in Okoboji.

“She works at.. like a hot spot in town and she tested positive as well.  I assume from sharing the same bathroom, I acquired it from her.” 

Krage says the roommate and another friend she suspects caught the virus showed no signs of COVID-19. That’s why she advises everyone, at any age,  to take precautions and wear masks while out in public.

“If you do breath on someone, or accidently cough on sometime, it’s just too easy because you don’t feel sick. But, you can pass it onto others.”

Krage says she no longer feels sick herself, but a health representative who tracked her disease told her to wait before coming in contact with others

“On the 4th day I should be free to live as normal.”

That should be on Wednesday.

Last week, Iowa’s governor said a Test Iowa site is expected to open this week at the Dickinson County Fairgrounds in Spirit Lake.  Krage isn't sure if she will return to the Iowa Great Lakes area this summer.