Fans of Doja Cat just got dealt some bad news: The singer and rapper posted on her official Instagram that she’s tested positive for COVID-19 alongside members of her production team. The diagnosis means she’s had to pull out of iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball Tour.
“We recently learned that a few members on my production team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are now on quarantine,” she wrote on Instagram. “For the health and well-being of the rest of our crew, we are following all the appropriate safety measurements and necessary precautions, which means I won’t be able to perform at iHeartRadio’s New York Z100 and Boston KISS FM Jingle Ball.”
Luckily, it sounds like the entertainer is experiencing a mild case of the illness, but the diagnosis has understandably affected her emotionally. “I’m extremely disappointed…wish I could be there,” she said. “While my spirits are down…I’m doing okay and look forward to recovering and getting back out there as soon as I can!”
It’s not the performer’s first bout with the virus. In a July 2020 interview with Capital XTRA, she said she had previously tested positive. “I got COVID…I don’t know how I got it but I got it.” At the time, she faced several days of symptoms. “I’m okay now. It was a four-day symptom freak out, but I’m fine now.”
It’s not clear whether Doja Cat has been vaccinated or received a booster. In March 2020, she mocked concern about the pandemic. In an Instagram Live appearance, she said inaccurately of the virus, “It’s a flu!” and that she wasn’t scared of it, downplaying its extreme seriousness and potential lethality.
READ RELATED: Omicron Covid variant: 'We are kidding ourselves' – Cambridge virologist on the disease
Unfortunately, as is starkly clear at this point, the illness is not a mild experience for everyone. COVID-19 has killed more than 793,000 people in the U.S. since it was first discovered in late 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The flu, on the other hand, tends to kill between 12,000 and 52,000 people per year, according to the CDC.) Older people and those with certain underlying health conditions such as heart or lung disease or diabetes have the highest risk for severe complications. And even people who have a mild experience with the illness can end up with months of debilitating symptoms, in a condition known as long COVID.
According to the CDC, the most common symptoms for COVID-19 are cold and flu-like, such as fever, chills, cough, fatigue, muscle and body aches, headache, sore throat, congestion, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The illness can also cause shortness of breath and loss of taste and smell. In more severe cases, people can experience difficulty breathing, chest pain, confusion, and loss of color in the lips, which are all signs to seek emergency medical attention.
One of the best ways to prevent long COVID, severe illness, death, and spreading the virus to others who may have these experiences is to get the COVID-19 vaccine if you haven’t already, according to the CDC, and to get your booster dose if you are at least six months out from your second shot of the Pfizer/Moderna shot or two months out from a Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
That’s true even if you’ve previously had COVID-19, like Doja Cat did. As we’re seeing in people like Cody Rigsby and Derek Hough, even fully vaccinated people who have already gotten COVID-19 can get breakthrough cases. New variants, such as the omicron variant, may be even more likely to evade previous immunity—which is why getting vaccinated and boosted is so critical. But those who are unvaccinated or haven’t received boosters are at even greater risk of getting the illness—potentially even more than once.
Related:
Source: SELF
