London, March 27 (IANS): Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who has “completely recovered” from COVID-19, believes people should be “emotionally more open” after the coronavirus pandemic.
Arteta, 38, tested positive for the virus on March 12 but has since recovered after self-isolating.
“We are in a world here where everything is social media, everything is a WhatsApp text,” Arteta was quoted as saying by BBC Sports.
“But how important is touching each other, feeling each other and hugging each other?
“I miss that with a lot of the people I love.
“We have to be emotionally more open. We have to tell each other what we are feeling,” he added.
“We cannot just in two or three months’ time – if we are able to get over this quickly – forget about this, because it’s so important.”
He reported feeling unwell after it was confirmed Evangelos Marinakis — the owner of Greek side Olympiakos, who played Arsenal in the Europa League in February — had coronavirus on March 10.
Arteta said his main concern was his three children after his wife and their nanny contracted the virus.
“In terms of symptoms, it was a normal virus for me. I had three or four days which were a little bit difficult, with a bit of a temperature and a dry cough, and some discomfort in my chest. That was it. The difficulty is that I have people at home, three kids as well and I was worried. My missus has been through it and our nanny’s been through it.
“I am feeling completely recovered (now)…,” he told the club website.
“We are living in a unique situation, so I think all of us are trying to react to the situation that is coming on a daily basis and trying our best to overcome the situation.
The Spaniard urged people across the world to stay indoors and follow the guidelines put in place by the authorities in order to slow down the process of virus transmission.
“…And please to everybody, we are a little bit behind other countries, for example, Spain, where I know the situation they are living at the moment, and while we are having the opportunity a little bit to minimise the risk, I encourage everybody please to be responsible and stay at home as much as possible. That is all we can do from our position, we don’t have the ability to help others in other circumstances, so please at least stay at home and do what is required.”
“We have to slow the process down and the virus down, so please stay at home,” he added.
