EDMONTON -- An Edmonton Transit driver is speaking out from self-isolation after a passenger coughed on her, and claimed to have tested positive for COVID-19.

Nora Bailey was driving her bus towards Southgate Centre around 12:30 last Sunday afternoon. There were two teenage boys and a senior on board the bus.

A fourth passenger got on the bus at a stop on 51 Avenue. Bailey said nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the man started coughing. She said the teens and the man got into a yelling match.

"He was coughing so bad and then they started yelling at him and saying you shouldn't be on the bus, you're going to infect people," she said. "They had their coats over top of their faces because they were scared."

Bailey said she pulled over, and then she said the man got up and punched one of the teens in the head.

The senior and the teens got off the bus, but the man did not.

"I said to the gentleman can you please cover your mouth," she said. "And he just started yelling at me from the back of the bus."

Bailey said at that point she called ETS security. She said when she did, the man came up to her protective enclosure and started coughing on her.

She said the man told her he had tested positive for COVID-19. She said she was trapped in her seat and considered jumping out the driver side window to escape.

Peace officers arrived shortly after, and Bailey said the man coughed on them as well.

"Today is pretty much the first day I stopped crying," she told CTV News Edmonton. "I'm super scared, I'm super nervous."

Daniel Black, 38, was arrested and charged with two counts of assault, assaulting a peace officer, and contravening an order of the Chief Medical Officer under the Public Health Act. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 16.

While obviously shaken by the experience, Bailey said family, friends, co-workers and Edmonton Transit have been very supportive.

She also said she hasn’t shown any symptoms of COVID-19 as of Thursday. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Matt Woodman.