Alabama mayor, wife diagnosed with COVID-19

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, emerging from the surface of cells, green, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP) This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, emerging from the surface of cells, green, cultured in the lab. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)

By Associated Press May 6, 2020 2 min read

GREENVILLE, Ala. (AP) – A south Alabama mayor who said he didn’t pay much attention to the new coronavirus has been diagnosed with COVID-19 along with his wife.

Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon told WSFA-TV that he and his wife Janice both tested positive for the illness, although neither has been hospitalized. Both are quarantined at home waiting for their temperatures to go down, followed by additional testing.

“We’re doing what we need to do,” he said Wednesday.

McClendon said he was among the people who didn’t take the threat of the virus too seriously and, through work, got around someone who had been infected.

“I let my guard down one day and … I ended up getting the virus,” he said.