Wheeling’s Vice Mayor Chad Thalman confirmed this evening that he has tested positive for COVID-19 this week and wishes to inform local residents that people can be walking around without knowing they are infected.
Thalman tested positive today and immediately performed his personal contact tracing program, and he said he feels guilty about the numbers of people he potentially exposed to the coronavirus. While he has refused to be social during the pandemic, he has informed several individuals of the test results.
“There was a time when I had some chest congestion, but that’s pretty normal for this time of year because I have allergies. I go and get an allergy shot once a month, so I didn’t think anything about it,” the Ward 1 councilman said. “And, there was one day I experienced some muscle soreness, but that was after a workout and, again, I didn’t think anything about it because that was a normal thing.
“The one message I want to send to everyone is that you could be walking around with this thing and that you might have the ability to get other people sick with this virus, and I feel so guilty that I may have done that,” Thalman said. “I had no symptoms and went about my life the way we go about our lives. I didn’t miss a day of work, and I didn’t miss anything associated with being a member of city council.”
Since receiving his test results, Thalman has communicated with everyone he knows that he was around during the period of time that officials with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department says was possible that he had the potential to spread the coronavirus.
“I was told that I could have been with someone who had tested positive and I was told that I should go get tested, and I almost didn’t, but today I decided to go to the Wheeling Park testing site,” Thalman reported. “And then I got the call that I was positive, so I have been spending most of this day calling people and telling them.
“Asymptomatic is very real, and I don’t plan to leave home until I can get tested and it comes back negative,” the vice mayor said. “People need to know because I had heard about it, but I had no idea when I was putting myself at risk. I obviously did, and really want to help other folks from not doing the same.”
