Wuhan coronavirus survivors may have their health but normal life will take a little longer
- Third in a series exploring the different experiences of Covid-19 survivors from around the world
- ‘It was like waiting for death,’ man says of suffering at home
More than two months have passed since Lu Ming and his wife fell ill with coronavirus, and their life is far from getting back to normal.
Lu is still under home isolation while his wife Li Yue is in a quarantine centre. She was admitted to hospital twice because she tested positive to the virus again after being released.
The middle-aged couple from Wuhan, the city in central China where the first Covid-19 case was reported, battled persistent fever on their own during the city’s hardest times in late January and early February, when hospitals were fully packed and test kits were still in short supply.
It was only two weeks after developing symptoms they thought were caused by a cold that the couple was confirmed to have contracted the new virus and admitted to hospital. By then, Lu, aged 45, had suffered a fever for 13 days.
“Day after day, I remained home, there was no bed in the hospital. It was like waiting for death,” said the man who was eventually admitted to hospital for two weeks.
His wife, who worked in a supermarket and became sick first, was less ill but her experience was no less dramatic. She was sick at home for 18 days, in hospital for two weeks, tested positive again during follow-up quarantine, was admitted to hospital again for 16 days, and is now under quarantine for a second time.
Chinese authorities put recovered patients in quarantine centres during which follow-up assessments are done. After they are released patients must be isolated at home for another two weeks.
