Jersey City Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro believes he has COVID-19 after battling a fever, along with other symptoms for the past 10 days, currently awaiting tests results from a local hospital bed.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“I can’t imagine what other people are going through. I think everyone needs to wake up, wisen up: it’s real. People need to practice social distancing: if not for your own health, it’s for everybody else,” Lavarro, 50, said in a phone interview this afternoon.

“I’m probably on the better side of [recovery] probability. For seniors and others, this can be fatal. We need to be thinking about everybody else.”

He continued that he began to come down with a fever on March 13th, bad enough where he decided to self-quarantine the next day.

After being prescribed two different antibiotics, the councilman said his fever still climbed to 102 degrees before finally being admitted to the Jersey City Medical Center on Saturday.

“I went to a second doctor to get blood work, he said my blood pressure was very low and that I needed to admit myself to the emergency room,” Lavarro explained, adding that he took the coronavirus test on Saturday and is expecting the results in the next day or two.

Lavarro is the first Hudson County official to publicly announce he has gone on a self-quarantine and been administered a test for the coronavirus.

Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese (D-36), of neighboring Bergen County, revealed he tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, The Record first reported.