Kim Bell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The lone officer with the St. Louis County Police Department to test positive for COVID-19 has recovered and returned to work.
Officer Nathan Phillips has been off work for three weeks, since shortly after his wife starting having symptoms of the coronavirus. He began feeling body aches and feverish a week later, and tested positive March 28.
He never had to be hospitalized and said he and his wife, his teenage stepson and his 15-month-old daughter — all of whom had symptoms — rode out the illness at home and are now doing well. He said his wife tested positive for COVID-19, but the children weren’t tested.
Phillips, 35, a patrol officer in the North County precinct, went back to work Saturday. He has been with the St. Louis County Police Department since April 2016. Before that, he worked at City Museum in various capacities, including managing staff and running security.
Phillips’ message for others in a region scared by coronavirus? “There’s hope.”
https://twitter.com/stlcountypd/status/1249772021942288384
The police department said Phillips is the only one of the department’s roughly 1,000 officers who has had the virus. The department doesn’t think Phillips contracted the virus while on duty, but work areas and vehicles he was in were thoroughly cleaned.
Phillips said he isn’t sure where he got the virus but thinks it may have been from a family member. His stepson started coughing, then his wife began showing symptoms. Phillips told his sergeant, who suggested Phillips stay away from work. A week later at home, Phillips started feeling ill. He had a cough, an elevated temperature, body aches and chills.
“I never had chills before like that,” he told the Post-Dispatch on Monday. “It was a weird sensation.”
He said he had some shortness of breath, but nothing scary enough to seek medical attention. “I’d be going upstairs from the basement and it felt like I had been working out,” he said. “But not a crushing weight on my chest.”
He spent the time at home with his family, all sharing the same space and symptoms. He said he kept busy spreading mulch, cleaning inside the house and binge-watching the “Tiger King” series on Netflix. He said he also was touched to read all of the well-wishes from friends. His daughter had a fever for about four days but now “she’s good, back to her bouncy normal happy self.”
Once Phillips was symptom-free for three days, county health officials cleared him to return to work. County police Chief Jon Belmar said he was “thrilled” to have Phillips back on duty.
“Knowing that first responders are not immune to COVID-19, it speaks to his dedication to duty and willingness to serve the citizens of St. Louis County,” Belmar said in a news release. “I am very proud to have him, and many others of his caliber, so prevalent in our police department.”
Phillips’ duties with the department include being a field training officer. So far, Phillips has helped train six officers fresh out of the police academy, said county police Sgt. Benjamin Granda.
Now that Phillips is back at work, he’s heard some ribbing from co-workers. “Mostly jokes about keeping me in one of the cells in the precinct,” he said. “They’re all pretty curious what it’s like to go through it. How bad things got. No one’s shying away from me.”
Phillips said he has advice for others. “Take your precautions and keep yourself safe,” Phillips said. “Stay happy with your family. Gotta keep loving each other.”