KEY POINTS

  • Andrea Bocelli revealed that he contracted COVID-19 in March
  • His wife and family were infected too
  • Bocelli kept this information as a respect to others who were affected by COVID-19
  • He also wanted to protect the privacy of his family
  • Bocelli has fully recovered and is willing to donate blood plasma

Andrea Bocelli confirmed he contracted COVID-19 and revealed the reason for keeping it a secret.

Talking to Good Morning America on Tuesday, the 61-year-old opera singer said he did not want to alarm his fans unnecessarily and wanted to protect his family’s privacy, Daily Mail reported.

Bocelli broke the news on his official Facebook account, where he said, “Out of respect for those for whom contracting the virus has had more serious consequences, I decided it would be best not to share the news.”

Bocelli reportedly took the COVID-19 test and confirmed that he had the infection on March 10. He was on full recovery by the end of the same month.

After his experience with infection, Bocelli wanted to contribute to finding a cure for COVID-19 by donating his blood. His wife, who also contracted and recovered from the deadly virus, will reportedly donate her blood plasma.

Andrea Bocelli CD
Italian singer Andrea Bocelli (R) and his wife Veronica Berti arrive for a meeting with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at Miraflores Palace in Caracas April 25, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Bocelli said that his entire family got infected. The infection started with a fever, then colds and cough. Despite the challenging time, Bocelli reportedly tried to be more optimistic. He and his family fought the disease together and supported one another.

Many researchers and doctors have reportedly started using blood plasma of people who have recovered from COVID-19 for treatment to those who are still ill with the disease.

The blood of people who recovered from the infection contains antibodies. Plasma is one of the blood components which contain such antibodies and medical experts can have this separated and administered to those people who are still battling with an infectious disease. This method can help the immune system of patients to efficiently reject the pathogen, reported Medical News Today.

The medical health news outlet spoke to Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University and they were told that, in cases of epidemics where treatment options were very limited, the blood of those patients who recovered could have antibodies that can be used as treatment.

Italy, the country where Bocelli was born, currently has 230,555 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 32,955 reported deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University CSSE data. The total global count for confirmed cases is now at 5.6 million with 351, 146 global deaths.

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