Sturgill Simpson is the latest artist to test positive for COVID-19. Sturgill said in a statement on Saturday (4/11) that he had been suffering from chest pains, fever, and pre-stroke blood pressure levels on March 13th when his wife took him to a local hospital ER. Fearing he contracted the Coronavirus in Europe while touring there in late January and early February, he asked to be tested.
“I spent an hour listening to a (highly condescending) Doctor refuse to test me because I ‘did not fit testing criteria’ and tell me why it was impossible that I had contracted the virus due to its extreme rarity and that it was not in western Europe yet during that same period (which we now know is incorrect) even though I was told by two nurses that I was the first person their hospital had walk in requesting to be tested.”
Simpson was able to be tested roughly a month later when both himself and his wife went to a drive-thru testing site in Alabama at a National Guard depot. “Yesterday on Friday April 10th, after almost one month without any symptoms, I received a call from the Nashville CDC stating that my test resulted in a positive detection for Covid-19. My wife (who has been by my side since Europe) tested negative.”
Simpson is now in quarantine at his home, but otherwise appears to not be suffering from any major complications from the virus.