Kathy Griffin has been sent home from hospital after spending time in a coronavirus isolation ward.
The 59-year-old comedian revealed this week she was battling "unbearably painful symptoms" associated with the respiratory illness – also known as COVID-19 – and said she had been taken to a specific isolation ward for sufferers of the virus, although she was unable to be tested.
And now, she has confirmed to the Los Angeles Times she’s back home after being diagnosed with an abdominal infection that is being treated with medication.
During an interview with the publication, Kathy detailed her experience at the isolation ward, which she was taken to after feeling ill following a trip to Mexico with her husband Randy Bick.
She said: "We were both nervous because we were still in the incubation period after returning from Mexico, but also we had not left the house in days. We’d been hearing about a 14-day incubation period [for the coronavirus]. So for me to get what felt like food poisoning after six days, I thought, OK, is this a coincidence or what?"
Kathy praised the "heroes" who treated her at the hospital, but said the facility was not set up how she’d imagined, and there were no coronavirus tests available.
She added: "Frankly, when they said the corona ward, I thought I would be walking into the white suits with blue-taped ceilings, everything. I kind of expected them to put me in a shower room and all that – but as recently as [Tuesday], there’s no cavalry that’s coming in handing out millions of [test] swabs."
The comedian was unable to get a test for the virus because her symptoms didn’t "meet the requirements" set out by the CDC.
She explained: "The doctor was going through the boxes and going through the boxes [on a form] and she kept saying, like, ‘Ugh, because of the lungs, the fever and the kind of cough … you don’t meet the CDC requirements.’
"I just think it’s so obvious that those tests have to be accessible to everybody. A lot of people, when they hear the president saying everyone who needs a test should get one, then shouldn’t have to then go to a hospital where, frankly, they may be exposing themselves or exposing others."
Kathy first spoke about her symptoms when she took to Twitter to hit out at US president Donald Trump, after he claimed America is now doing "more testing than any other nation".
She tweeted: "He’s lying. I was sent to the #COVID19 isolation ward room in a major hospital ER from a separate urgent care facility after showing UNBEARABLY PAINFUL symptoms. The hospital couldn’t test me for #coronavirus because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions. #TESTTESTTEST (sic)"
Kathy Griffin is back home after being admitted to a coronavirus isolation ward
