Jeremy Messersmith is due to perform two shows at Cedar Cultural Center in early May. / Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Minneapolis musician Jeremy Messersmith chronicles his own coronavirus test while awaiting results
"Nothing to be afraid of," the locally beloved singer/songwriter said of his test done Monday.
March 16, 2020 at 11:44PM
While most musicians are scrambling just to find an income during the coronavirus quarantine this week, one of the Twin Cities' most popular singer/songwriters had to figure out what it takes to get tested for the virus after showing possible symptoms.
Jeremy Messersmith opened up on Twitter about taking a COVID-19 test Monday after suffering through a sore throat, chills and fever for several days. He won't get the test results back for three to five days.
The point of making his experience public in the meantime, it seems, was to underline how relatively easy it was to get tested once his brother (an emergency room doctor) told him he should.
"While it's uncomfortable, it's nothing to be afraid of," the Minneapolis singer, 38, wrote of the test, which started with him filling in information online via the primary testing site Oncare.org. Medical staff reviewed his answers, got back to him in a few hours and told him where to go for one of the "drive-through" tests outside a clinic in Brooklyn Park.
Here's how it went down from there, according to his post:
"I arrived at 11 a.m. when the clinic opened, then called a hotline. They took my information, and at around noon I got a call from staff working there. They came out to the parking lot in protective gear, gave me a sheet with quarantine information and then took a nasopharyngeal swab. They went over home quarantine guidelines and said I'll have the results in 3-5 days. 'Don't call us, we'll call you.' And that was that. The wait wasn't insanely long."
Messersmith is now holed up at home, and he cheerily reported, "I've got books to read and friends to leave Tylenol and snacks on the back porch."
Read his full post via Twitter or embedded below, and find more reports and answers to the growing coronavirus crisis via the Star Tribune's free daily roundup page. Here's hoping the results of the test amount to nothing more than another wonderfully neurotic Messersmith song on down the line.
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