‘If I can get it, anybody can get it’: Louisville mayor in quarantine after testing positive for COVID

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Tuesday he is hoping to get out of quarantine and on a flight home this weekend.

The Mayor complained of mild flu-like symptoms and tested positive for COVID on Sunday while on a week-long trip to Israel.

“You know how your legs feel a little rubbery when you have the flu and your head’s a little foggy?” Fischer said. “Just that kind of thing. A little cough but pretty mild. I’m grateful for that.”

Fischer was participating in an educational program for U.S. Mayors sponsored by the American Jewish Committee.

“I got a cold about four days into the Israel trip… and then got tested the next day and it was negative,” Fischer said. “So I was getting ready to go to the airport to take the flight home and you have to have that negative antigen test. And it came back positive Sunday morning.”

Fischer was ordered to a mandatory five-day quarantine after the positive test result.

Now fully vaccinated and boosted, Fischer said he still felt a twinge of anxiety when he tested positive.

“You don’t know,” Fischer said. “2,300 dead in Louisville, people that are healthy one day and then two days later, you hear they’re gone. So there’s that uncertainty there, but I felt certain that I was going to be just fine because I had the vaccinations and the booster already.”

He said he hopes a negative test result on Wednesday and Thursday will be his ticket home.

Fischer will be returning with a new personal perspective in his message about the importance of vaccines.

“If I can get it, anybody can get it,” Fischer said. “This virus is coming for each and every one of us. That’s its job and we’re not out of the woods on it yet.”

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