Waffle House worker quarantined with coronavirus tells his story

ATLANTA — A Waffle House employee who was diagnosed with the coronavirus and sent to a quarantine unit at a Georgia state park is telling his story.

Joey Camp, the only person in quarantine in the government trailers set up at Hard Labor Creek State Park, talked to WSB-TV.

Camp, 30, has been in isolation for four days.

Camp told Thomas he only has a mild cough after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. The Cherokee County man said he has diabetes and was first diagnosed with pneumonia. Camp said people shouldn’t worry so much about the illness unless they have a compromised immune system like he does.

“I want people to stop freaking out,” Camp said. “I want people to calm down and understand, yes, it’s an infectious disease, and yes, if your immune system is compromised, it’s dangerous.”

Right now, Camp is the only infected person living in one of the six trailers being monitored by state health workers in the Morgan County park.

On Thursday, Camp was allowed outside for the first time. He told Thomas that after days of no human contact, he’s a little stir-crazy.

"It's nice to enjoy a little bit of fresh air," Camp told Thomas.

The state public health commissioner hopes that quarantining people like Camp and canceling events will curb the virus.

“What we are trying to do is to keep that spread of person-to-person disease from going so quickly, we call the epidemic curve, to be so steep that we overwhelm our hospitals,” Dr. Kathleen Toomey said.

Camp hopes to go back home in three to nine days.

"With how crazy people have been acting out in the real world, I'm going to get prepared for mass hysteria," Camp said.

Camp could have self-quarantined at home but was living with a family with a child and didn’t want to infect the baby. His advice? Wash your hands and be mindful of normal hygiene and “we’ll make it through this.”

Cox Media Group