A young Hudson Valley woman who is recovering from the coronavirus is sharing her story in the hope of encouraging more people to stay home and for young adults to take the virus seriously.
Julia says the day her fever spiked to 101, New York had just opened its first drive-through testing in New Rochelle.
Unable to book an appointment over the phone, the 25-year-old drove there anyway.
"It wasn't crowded, no one was driving in or out and they told me it wasn't going to be possible for me to get a test. I waited about two hours and they finally let me get tested,” she says.
That test came back positive, and the virus took out the healthy graduate student for two weeks.
"I was out of breath, just walking from my bed to the kitchen and I don’t have any underlying health problems, and so that was frustrating and unusual for me,” she says.
The virus, which was originally thought to be dangerous mainly to the elderly or immune-compromised, is now increasingly spreading among young adults.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office confirmed with News 12 that as of Sunday, about half of all coronavirus cases are among people ages 18 to 49.
Another healthy 25-year-old in New Jersey is currently in a coma as he fights COVID-19. He also is said to have no underlying health issues.
"There are so many people saying if you’re young, under 60 and you’re healthy, you have nothing to worry about because that’s not true at all. Use common sense, do everything we are being asked to do to minimize this problem sooner rather than later,” she says.
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