Two engineers who reportedly attended last month’s RSA Conference in San Francisco have tested positive for Coronavirus.
According to a statement posted on Twitter, the engineers worked for Exabeam, and although the company could not confirm “whether they contracted Covid-19 prior to, at or after the conference,” it has warned anyone who did come into contact with its staff to be vigilant in monitoring for symptoms.
According to a report by Bloomberg, one of the men who tested positive is a 45-year-old engineer who began experiencing symptoms when he returned home to Connecticut. His condition deteriorated the following week and he was hospitalized in respiratory distress on March 6, according to his wife.
“The man was placed into a medically induced coma and is now on a ventilator in guarded condition,” the article claimed. The individual is predisposed to pneumonia due to an underlying heart condition, according to his family.
A Go Fund Me page has so far raised more than $12,000 (at the time of writing) with the intention to assist the family with medical bills as well as necessities for his wife and two infant children.
In a statement, RSA Conference said that “there is not a known direct link or official governing body communicating back to RSA Conference that these individuals had symptoms at Conference or attended during the incubation period,” adding that is has shared the information with attendees and would continue to share information “out of an abundance of caution.”
UPDATED March 30 - One of those taken ill was senior security engineer Chris Tillett, who is now on “the road to recovery” according to a spokesperson. In an interview on the TODAY program, he said he was “feeling much better and improving every day” after being put into a medically-induced coma.
Tillett said that he “felt like a truck hit” him on the flight home from San Francisco, and he developed symptoms like the 100 degree fever and aching joints, “and by Friday I had descended into chaos.” However, he was shown with his wife and two young children appearing well and thanked medical staff for all of their efforts.