Jim Donchess

NASHUA – Members of the Board of Aldermen took turns at Wednesday night’s meeting wishing Mayor Jim Donchess a speedy recovery, after he announced during his regular COVID-19 update that he is one of three City Hall employees who have tested positive for the virus.

“So far, it’s much like having the flu … I have fatigue, headaches, and feel sick,” Donchess said from his home Thursday.

He said he has not experienced the breathing problems that are common among people diagnosed with the virus. “For me, the disease hasn’t been too severe,” he said, adding that given the way he feels, “I know I have a virus.”

The two other employees who have tested positive have not been identified, but city Division of Public Health and Community Services officials say they, as well as Donchess, are “currently self-isolating at home for 10 days.”

Flavia Martin, coordinator of the department’s Communicable Disease Program, said that all of their “close contacts have been notified” and advised to self-quarantine for 14 days, and get tested as well.

One of those employees, Donchess said, told him about a week ago that a member of the employee’s household had tested positive, raising “at least the possibility the (household) member could have communicated it to the employee,” he said.

“So I encouraged the employee to get tested, and I went and got tested myself.”

Although the employee’s test came back positive, Donchess said, “I still didn’t think I’d get (the virus) because I wasn’t symptomatic at all.”

A day or so later, Donchess got his test result. “It was inconclusive, which means a presumtive positive,” he said.

The next morning, Division of Public Health director Bobbie Bagley went to Donchess’s house to administer another test, he said.

By then, “I figured I probably have it,” he said, noting that he was beginning to feel the flu-like symptoms.

Donchess said his wife, Victoria, also “seems to be having symptoms” of the virus. She had been tested, he said, and they are awaiting the results.

As a result of the three diagnoses at City Hall, additional employees who have been in their offices are in quarantine, Donchess said, adding that “a lot of people have been working remotely” as preemptive measures.

His diagnosis, Donchess said, “goes to show why people in the community need to continue taking precautions.

“I’ve been extremely careful for six months … no movies, no groups without a lot of physical distancing, no indoor gatherings,” Donchess said.

“I have personally limited the number of people I meet with in City Hall. Yet somehow the virus slipped through,” he added.

See additional details in Sunday’s edition of The Telegraph.

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