When Chris Cuomo announced he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the high fever, chills, shortness of breath and hallucinations of his late father weren’t what immediately worried the CNN anchor. What did concern him, he said, was passing the virus to his family.
On Wednesday night, Cuomo, broadcasting again from his home’s basement, where he remains quarantined, said that his worst fear had become a reality: His wife, Cristina, had tested positive for the coronavirus.
“Cristina now has covid. She is now positive. And it just breaks my heart,” he said during a segment with his brother, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). “It is the one thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen, and now it has.”
In a follow-up tweet Wednesday night, Chris Cuomo said the couple’s three children are “still healthy,” but the news of the family’s latest positive case of the coronavirus “shook us at our literal core.”
“Families all over know the reality our family faces,” he tweeted. “Few are one case and done.”
He added, “Can’t wait to shake this fever so I can help her as she helped me. Sucks.”
Families all over know the reality our family faces: few are one case and done. Sure enough, Cristina has covid now. Kids are still healthy but this shook us at our literal core. All are stepping up. Can't wait to shake this fever so I can help her as she helped me. Sucks. pic.twitter.com/ncyoQ3saWc
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) April 16, 2020
With more than 2 million confirmed cases worldwide, and nearly a third of those instances in the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has decimated members of the same family. It’s no different in the United States, the epicenter of the pandemic, where stories of members of the same family getting infected have become commonplace. Recent cases in New Jersey and Louisiana in which multiple family members were killed because of the virus have served as devastating examples of what covid-19 can do to families.
While it’s unclear how Cristina, 50, contracted the virus, the New York governor said it was “inevitable” that someone else in his younger brother’s home would come down with the coronavirus.
“It’s very hard for a person to quarantine in a home and other people not to get infected,” he said. “To do it in a home where a person is bringing you dishes, bringing you food, even if they’re wearing a mask and gloves, that virus can live on some surfaces up to two days.”
Cristina, editor in chief of the Purist, a wellness magazine, recently told “Extra” that she drops off her husband’s food tray at the top of the stairs and hangs out with him while she’s wearing a mask and gloves. But she also expressed a fear of contracting the virus, especially because she previously had an aggressive form of Lyme disease.
“It’s sort of like day-to-day. You just wake up and pray you don’t have it that day,” she said.
The elder Cuomo brother commended the CNN anchor for staying on-air to talk about his battle with the virus, an experience that the host equated to someone “beating me like a piñata” and that had him seeing his late father, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, in fever-induced hallucinations.
“This is what it’s like: One person gets the virus, other people in the home get the virus,” said the current New York governor. “You now have a mother and father with the virus, and you have three kids to take care of. This gets very complicated very fast. There is a reality to this.”
As they have done in recent interviews during the crisis, the brothers were still able to inject some brief levity to a heavy discussion. While saying he did not believe President Trump would pressure governors nationwide to reopen their states, Andrew M. Cuomo likened the president’s possible prodding to getting poked in a corner with a sharp stick. This got the attention of Chris Cuomo, who couldn’t help but wonder what that would look like.
“I would like to see [Trump] poke you with a sharp stick,” the CNN anchor jokingly said. “I would pay to see that, actually — raise revenue for the state.”
The well-being of his family was still on the anchor’s mind throughout the course of Wednesday’s show. The governor again praised his brother for sharing his story to millions of Americans and speculated how this latest coronavirus development is being processed by his sister-in-law.
“To the extent that Cristina is going to blame you for this,” said the governor, “there’s a lot of other things she can blame you for, so this is going to be No. 17 on the list. So I wouldn’t worry about that.”
After a long day, the quip got a rare laugh from his quarantined brother.
