Joshua Parfitt
THE Valencian journalist in isolation at Valencia’s Hospital Clínico since Thursday has said he feels ‘racked with guilt’ after infecting numerous people with coronavirus.
Football commentator Kike Mateu, 44, was the region’s first confirmed covid-19 patient after he returned from Milan to cover the Valencia CF vs Atalanta match on February 19.
In a revealing daily diary published in Las Provincias, Mateu said he is in a ‘stable’ condition but spends his time checking on the people he has infected – and those still awaiting tests.
“I confess, the worst moments of having the virus are not from within my isolation room,” wrote Mateu.
“I spend my days communicating with people who, unwittingly, I infected when I returned from Milan.
“I’m racked with guilt that I have changed their day-to-day lives and I have a huge sense of responsibility.
“I don’t mind that I have the coronavirus, but it affects me a lot to have involved more people in this. I know it’s not my fault but I can’t help it.”
Mateu added on Sunday he awoke with a 38.3° fever, some nasal congestion and an infrequent cough. He said he is being treated with paracetamol and is case is ‘mild’. Last week he said he felt ‘able to go to work’ and only attended hospital for tests out of a ‘sense of responsibility’.
He said a colleague with whom he had dined in Milan on Saturday returned a negative result to a coronavirus test.
“You cannot imagine the joy that it meant for me that neither he nor his family had the coronavirus,” Mateu wrote.
“It was, along with Dani Parejo’s goal, the best thing that happened to me yesterday.”
Spain currently has 115 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Kike Mateu is believed to have infected at least four, all in isolation at hospitals in Valencia.
As of Friday, the Valencian Community was the worst-hit region in all of Spain.
