A bar owner who caught Covid-19 said yesterday the infection would have been worse if he had not been vaccinated.

Reed Young said he had a mild case and did not appear to have infected his 16-year-old daughter or anyone else.

Mr Young, the owner of Docksider bar and restaurant, added: “My opinion is it did what they say it’s going to do.

“It prevents you from getting serious symptoms and makes you less likely to pass it on.”

Mr Young said he had publicised his brush with the coronavirus on Facebook to help dispel fears about vaccination.

He added: “I wanted people who were on the fence to look at it and say, it’s not such a bad idea – maybe the vaccine can help.”

Mr Young said: “Hopefully, I got some people to come onto this side of the fence. Nothing more, nothing less.”

He added the Facebook post attracted a thank-you from an exhausted nurse, who said the workload at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital had become “a nightmare” because of a surge in Covid-19 patients.

Mr Young said he and his daughter, who was with him in quarantine, expected a clear result from their final test tomorrow.

The bar reopened last weekend after Mr Reed and a manager noticed Covid-19 symptoms last week – but they appeared not to have spread the virus to others.

Mr Young said he was among the first to get the vaccine after he took his 97-year-old father for the jabs.

He explained: “I spend a lot of time with him, so they gave it to me as well. I got the second dose on Super Bowl Sunday.”

Mr Young was speaking after health officials warned the public to take no chances and to isolate and test at the first sign of symptoms.

He admitted the warning signs of the onset of Covid-19, on Monday last week, had been minor.

Mr Young said he had woken up sneezing and with watery eyes and put it down to allergies, which he suffers from.

He added: “I didn’t think Covid, to be honest. Monday to Wednesday I stayed away from people. But, to me, it was normal symptoms.”

But Mr Young said he went on full alert after he heard that “the weekend just prior was a super spreader”.

Mr Young said: “Certain groups that went out that weekend were coming down with Covid.

“One of my managers said someone close to him tested positive. He stayed away from people.

“On Wednesday morning, he found out he was positive.”

Mr Young was already on the way to get his own test by the time his manager confirmed infection and the bar owner went straight into quarantine.

He also shut down Docksider and staff went to get tested.

Mr Young said he already feared the worst before he got the test because his senses of taste and smell had gone and he had a bitter taste in his mouth.

Mr Young’s son was already in quarantine elsewhere, so his daughter joined him in quarantine, but never tested positive.

He said he was mostly recovered by last weekend, although his sense of taste has not yet fully returned.

Mr Young added: “I feel if I hadn’t been vaccinated, it would be a lot worse. I could almost feel my body fighting it.

“I didn’t get severe symptoms or all that sick and my daughter never got it, which one would assume is an endorsement of the jab – they say you get a lower viral load so there’s less to pass on.”

Mr Young said looked forward to returning to work, where SafeKey is in force, even though the bar was not “openly jumping” because so many people were quarantined.

But he added he was optimistic about an upturn in business in the near future.

Mr Young said: “Let’s hope we can get things rolling again for October.”