Roy Rose (56) went to the Wanaka A&P show on Saturday, March 14 — the day after World Hereford Conference delegates had competed at the show.
The conference was linked to a 39-strong infection cluster.
‘‘I am certain I got it at the Wanaka bar. Someone at the show from the Hereford conference had given it to someone, and that someone was carrying it and possibly didn’t know they were,’’ he said.
Two days later he had lost his sense of taste and smell and had a sore throat, headache and aches and pains.
He rang a health centre in Wanaka and was advised he probably had the flu, and told to stay at home until he felt better and keep his distance from others as a precaution.
He was not tested for Covid-19 as he had not been overseas or in contact with anyone who had been.
A week later, on March 23 — Otago Anniversary Day — he began to feel better and the next day he went to work.
‘‘As the day went on I got sicker and sicker and it [Covid-19] came back with a vengeance, it really whammied me.’’
Mr Rose has obstructive sleep apnoea and has to use a machine every night to increase the air pressure in his throat so that his airway does not collapse when he inhales.
After he tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, March 25, the first day of the Level 4 lockdown, the virus moved to his chest and he became very short of breath.
‘‘When I talked to the doctors they said the CPAP machine was as good or better than a ventilator, so I was probably lucky to have had it that Tuesday night.’’
Everyone Mr Rose had been in contact with since the show had been tested; no-one had returned a positive result except his wife, Leanne Taylor-Rose.
Mrs Taylor-Rose was asymptomatic when she was tested but her symptoms appeared two days later, and were very different from her husband’s.
Five weeks on, the couple remains in quarantine at their Albert Town home because they are still not symptom-free.
Mr Rose has a mild cough, his chest is ‘‘still a bit tight’’ and both he and his wife still feel extremely tired.
