Former Charlottetown councillor recovering well after contracting COVID-19 in Kenya

A former Charlottetown councillor is recovering in Kenya after having relatively mild symptoms of COVID-19.

Bruce Garrity, who spendsmost of his time doing humanitarian work in theAfrican country,said he's very fortunate to have been shot with two doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine before contracting the disease.

"I'm in a compound with four or five families and I start coughing," he said "So I went to a pretty good hospital and they said 'you got COVID.' But they said 'because of the jabs you already received you're getting a lighter dose,' which was good to see."

Garrity has been living in Kenya, helpingchildren who have nothing to eat for lunch receive proper nourishment. He also sponsors children to go to school and helps teach youths carpentry and mechanic skills.

He, along with a couple of friends, have been doing humanitarian work in the country for the good part of a decade.

'Lucky'

According to the World Health Organization, Kenya has reported over 213,000 COVID-19 cases, a relatively low number compared to other countries struggling with the pandemic. But Garrity saidpublic health measures, such as social distancing and mask wearing are very lax and that the country has just been "lucky."

"If we got COVID, it should be spreading like crazy," he said. "But for some reason Kenya is in pretty good shape."

Only 1.8 million vaccine doses have been administered so far for a population that's close to 50 million.

Garrity said the only symptom he had was a deep cough, but that now that's mostly gone. He's been under treatment for the last two weeks.

"When I tell some friends back home or other people that I know, they say 'Bruce, you're the only guy we know who's got COVID,'" he said. "On P.E.I., you guys have been very lucky even though you got good precautions. You don't have many people with COVID."

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