Harnett man couldn't get tested for week before being diagnosed with coronavirus

A couple holed in in their Harnett County home because the husband has tested positive for coronavirus said Tuesday that he had to wait a week to be tested for the virus.

Posted 7:51 p.m. Mar 17, 2020 — Updated 3:52 a.m. Mar 18, 2020

Sloane Heffernan

, WRAL anchor/reporter

BUNNLEVEL, N.C. — A couple holed in in their Bunnlevel home because the husband has tested positive for coronavirus said Tuesday that he had to wait a week to be tested for the virus.

Jeff Hensley, 57, was Harnett County's first confirmed case of the virus when he was diagnosed last Friday. The county now has four cases.

His wife, Toni Hensley, a nurse, is caring for him. She remains in quarantine but has tested negative for the virus.

Toni Hensley said she and her husband called a coronavirus hotline three times after returning from a trip to Hawaii and were told he couldn't get tested unless he had a fever and tested negative for the flu.

He was home nearly a week before his fever spiked and they went to get tested at Health Pavilion North in Fayetteville.

"Right now, he is having a better day than he has this whole time – he has been sick for about 13 days," Toni Hensley said. "Today, no fever, [but] he still has a lot of cough and a lot of pain from coughing so bad for so long. So, his chest is hurting, but he is doing better.

"I am thankful that he is healthy because, if he had underlying issues, I could see how, respiratory-wise, this would affect him," she added. "I am just staying here in the same house – wiping everything down, spraying Lysol and hoping that my 20 years of nursing is going to boost my immune system enough that I don’t get this."

Toni Hensley is a traveling nurse who worked at Nash UNC Health Care in Rocky Mount last week before her husband was diagnosed. She said notified hospital officials of her situation, and they quizzed her about what areas of the hospital she was in.

The hospital issued a notice Tuesday that all patients and staff members who had contact with her last week had been isolated, but that was lifted as she tested negative for the virus.

"We now have self-monitoring guidelines in place for our staff, based on guidance from the CDC and UNC Health’s infectious disease experts, to ensure our staff are able to take care of patients, while mitigating the risk of spreading the virus," hospital officials said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Harnett County public health officials check on the Hensleys and the other COVID-19 patients daily – the couple is instructed to take their temperatures twice a day, Toni Hensley said. She said she would like to be retested for the virus, as she hasn't felt well for days.

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