LD39 Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi says she’s under self-quarantine after developing symptoms following exposure to people who were in direct contact with someone who has coronavirus.

Schepisi is a Vice President at Holy Name Medical Center.

She posted the following on Facebook on Sunday evening:

‘Since Tuesday I am one of the Bergen County residents on self quarantine. I had direct contact with several people who came in direct contact with someone infected and I developed symptoms. I’ve been awaiting test results for 4 days and I’ve been told it may be another 5 days until I get them.

I can’t come within 6 feet of my own children. I’ve had no physical contact with them or any human in almost a week. It’s brutal when your 8 year old gets mad at you because you haven’t hugged him or cuddled him in almost a week. We are fortunate in that we have a large enough home that I’ve been able to keep primarily to myself but it is mentally draining. Things you take for granted like emptying the dishwasher or making breakfast or seeing friends or going to the store you are not permitted to do. You can’t tuck your kids into bed. You can’t kiss them or your spouse goodnight.

You try to stay positive but candidly it is scary as all hell when you are on a home monitor and your blood oxygen level drops to 95 and you don’t know if it’s from the walk you finally took outside or if you’ve turned for the worse. I may or may not have the virus but there is no way I’d chance having someone else die because I wanted to “live my life” or because I started to feel better and wanted to go out. Believe me quarantine sucks but if I can do it so can everyone else. At this point people have to stop acting like they are trying not to catch it. They must act as if they already have and don’t want to give it to someone else.’

Insider NJ spoke with the Bergen Assemblywoman last week as she made the case for the need for more testing kits:

Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-39), a member of the Assembly Health Committee, said the feds need to provide New Jersey with more test kits for the coronavirus and oversee better turn around time by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for testing.

The Republican lawmaker from Bergen County said she is hearing from her constituents on those critical fronts and is deeply concerned.

“I spoke with someone who had symptoms consistent with a milder case, who was advised by their doctor not to get tested and to stay at home.”

Schepisi said that’s not good enough.

“We have no idea about the magnitude of community spread,” the lawmaker told InsiderNJ. “We were way too slow with responding to this crisis.”

Bergen County Executive Tedesco announced the county has 31 presumptive positive cases of coronavirus, as of Saturday. Tedesco said on Sunday that the county can expect stricter rules and a possible self-quarantine, according to the Bergen Record.  Tedesco held an evening press conference (details here) on Friday, and announced a supplemental executive order closing movie theaters, public theaters, and performance halls. Earlier this week, Tedesco declared a state of emergency and ordered schools to close and transition to online learning until further notice.