OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Update: A total of five custodians have tested positive for COVID-19 at Celebration K-8, according to district officials.
Two family members of one of the employees also contracted the virus.
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As plans for schools are announced across Central Florida, one of the biggest concerns is employees or students testing positive for COVID-19 once they return.
The Osceola County School District sent some employees to get tested after they found out a custodian tested positive.
Juan Carlos Sosa, 57, was back in the hallways, back in the classrooms and working once again with the custodial staff at Celebration K-8.
Read: Osceola County approves postponing school year to start Aug. 24
“They were all wearing masks but I don’t know if that was all the time,” said Nancy Batista, Sosa’s niece.
After a few days at work, Sosa was sick and eventually tested positive for COVID-19.
He has asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. His family said he was mostly staying at home because he knew he was considered high-risk. That’s why his family believes he was exposed at work.
“He wasn’t getting any better and it was to the point he could eat,” Batista said. “This is the third week now he’s in the hospital.”
Sosa is in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator.
“He is really dependent on that ventilator machine to do the breathing for him,” Batista said.
His family can’t talk to him, let alone see him. Sosa’s family is relying on hospital staff to call them with updates.
“It’s a constant feeling of anxiety because you want to know if he is doing better. And then if he’s doing worse you are wanting to know if anything has changed,” she said.
Unfortunately, the story of not knowing is similar for many families who can’t be by their loved ones side, but the story of how and where someone may have got sick is different for almost everyone.
Sosa’s family worries others will get the virus the same way they think he did in a school building.
“When people’s lives are on the line, janitors are on the line and teachers are on the line, then it doesn’t make any sense,” Batista said.