'Don't panic': American woman recovers from coronavirus and speaks out

A Seattle, Washington woman who recovered from coronavirus is speaking out and letting people know that they should avoid panicking about the illness.

Elizabeth Schneider is 37-years-old and came down with a mild case of coronavirus according to Fox 2. She wants to share her story to “give people a little bit of hope” as fear of the novel virus spreads.

Schneider noted that she first started noticing symptoms of coronavirus on Feb. 25, days after she attended a party where she believes she contracted the illness. Symptoms typically include a cough, fever and shortness of breath.

She has a Ph.D. in bioengineering and felt the “flu-like” symptoms after returning to the biotechnology company where she works. Schneider added that she was feeling tired “but it was nothing more than what you normally feel when you have to get up and go to work.”

Later in the day, her symptoms began to worsen as she felt body aches and a fever. She made the decision to leave work and take a nap at her home—later waking up to a fever that reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

She started to “shiver uncontrollably” after that and said she felt chill and “tingling in her extremities.”

Schneider noted that her symptoms began to subside in a few days after she treated it with over the counter medication.

She was not sure whether she had coronavirus or not because she didn't have any shortness of breath or develop a cough. Washington state has recently seen hundreds of coronavirus cases and 20 deaths so far.

After seeing a post on Facebook noting that many people who attended the same party as her had contracted the illness, Schneider decided to get testing done.

She then enrolled in a research program where she could receive testing. It was called the Seattle Flu Study. Her diagnosis was later confirmed by results of a nasal swab.

“I finally got a phone call from one of the research coordinators on Saturday (March 7), telling me that 'You have tested positive for COVID-19,'” said Schneider, adding that her mother cried upon learning the information.

“I was a little bit pleasantly surprised because I thought it was a little bit cool. Granted, I probably would not have felt that way if I was severely ill. But from a scientific curiosity perspective, I thought it was very interesting. And also the fact that I finally got confirmation that that's what I had.”

Schneider said that she felt free of symptoms by the time it was confirmed that she had the virus though she was still asked to self-isolate for 72 hours at her Seattle home.

“The message is don't panic,” she said. “If you think that you have it, you probably do; you should probably get tested.”

“If your symptoms aren't life-threatening, simply stay at home, medicate with over-the-counter medicines, drink lots of water, get a lot of rest and check out the shows you want to binge-watch.”

“Obviously, it's not something to be completely nonchalant about, because there are a lot of people who are elderly or have underlying health conditions.”

“That means that we need to be extra vigilant about staying home, isolating ourselves from others.”