Snohomish County 5-year-old exposed to coronavirus, unknowingly spreads it to family

SNOHOMISH COUNTY - A local family is in recovery after the coronavirus spread from their 5-year-old to the rest of their household.

The girl’s aunt Kristina Moody told Q13 News that her niece Juliet was exposed in November while pumpkin carving in a very small group.

“My niece’s mom really felt like she was being careful and making good decisions,” said Moody. “Now she herself has a different attitude of what safe is and isn’t because now it’s personal.”

Just five days after the group activity, Juliet’s mother received a phone call saying an adult in the group was Covid-19 positive.

While Juliet didn’t display symptoms initially, she later started to develop what seemed like a cold, very thick mucus, and a cough.

“My niece who’s five tested positive, and then later her mother tested positive, and then later her 18-year-old brother tested positive and her sister is presumed positive because of symptoms,” said Moody.

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Juliet’s mom, who has an autoimmune disorder, suffered the most severe symptoms out of the family. In a text message she wrote:

“The impact that it does to one mentally is nearly as bad, if not, in some cases, worse than the physical response itself. I also said along with the mental aspect,  you can’t quite describe the feeling one has when asking a doctor about what’s going to happen to you and the response you get is ‘I don’t know.’ It’s terrifying.”

“Actually I think she said she went to either a walk-in, or an emergency room, and had to get extra help with inhalers,” said Moody. “It really has scared her and changed her mindset about the entire thing.”

The family’s experience with the coronavirus is giving Moody a new perspective on health precautions and safety, especially as a grandmother to a two-year-old named Brenya.

“Yes, Covid-19 existed. It existed in the hospital that I worked at, but then all of a sudden it was in my personal life, and family members were coming down with Covid and were having real issues. It was alarming how fast it spread,” said Moody.

Unrelated to this recent spread in the family, Moody said her father-in-law passed away from Covid-19 on Halloween, and said he was older with underlying health issues.