HARRISBURG, Pa. — Shraga Feinberg isn't sure how he got COVID-19. He's just thankful his case wasn't severe.
Feinberg, 29 of Harrisburg, says he started feeling minor symptoms March 16. A fever of 100.5 alerted him something was wrong.
"I hadn't been sick in many, many years," Feinberg said.
Even then, Feinberg says he "blew it off", thinking if he had the coronavirus, his temperature would be higher. Further, his fever would break in the day, but would come back at night. It wasn't until he started feeling other symptoms that gave him more concern.
"I was real achy, lethargic, tired. I had a headache," Feinberg said. "I also lost my sense of smell and taste."
On March 19, Shraga, a Marine Corps veteran, went to the VA hospital in Lebanon to get tested. Four days later, he was officially diagnosed with COVID-19.
It was the first time any semblance of fear set in.
"When they told me I had [COVID-19], I was worried. Because of way it's being portrayed and reported on it makes you wonder, am I just going to drop."
Even then Shraga's condition improved daily. Despite going to the hospital one other time for a chest x-ray -- doctors were concerned he had pneumonia -- he had no trips to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit. Unlike many other reported cases of COVID-19, Feinberg also never showed any coughing or shortness of breath.
His sense of taste and smell did begin to slowly return during his 14-day mandatory quarantine.
"Even when it started to return a little bit, it smelled like rodent or cat (urine) when I was cooking food," he said. "It was very offsetting."
Shraga was given a clean bill of health on Sunday, April 5. His senses of taste and smell fully returned a few days later.
Today, he's able to go outside and exercise, though he continues to practice social distancing, knowing he was one of the fortunate ones whose condition never deteriorated.
"You might be walking around with it without realizing. I didn’t notice any symptoms until I had a fever which means I already caught the virus," Feinberg said. "You never know if you have it or not."