What's it like to have coronavirus? Matt Frei speaks to the first British survivor

7 March 2020, 12:37 | Updated: 8 March 2020, 08:15

Explaining how coronavirus attacks your body, Britain's first survivor of Covid-19 was speaking from Wuhan to share the experience with Matt Frei.

Connor Reed lives in Wuhan, the city that coronavirus first hit and was one of the virus' first victims.

Healthy and well, Mr. Reed broke down the stages of illness the afflicted experience once he was asked by Matt Frei "how did you feel when you got it".

"It definitely isn't a fun time" the survivor quipped. He then went into a breakdown of how the victim may experience coronavirus in different stages of illness.

"It moves in stages" Mr. Reed began. He shared the experience that he had, whereby he began with a cold, then moved on to a flu, and finally experienced pneumonia. He told Matt that "during the pneumonia I went to hospital".

Asked whether he was aware he'd been struck down by Covid-19, Connor Reed said "I just thought I was getting sick". He shared that he felt concerned once pneumonia took hold and he felt compelled to go to hospital.

While in his hospital bed suffering with pneumonia, which he claimed to feel like he was using "a quarter of your lung", Matt wanted to know if he was aware "at the time that this was potentially fatal".

Mr. Reed shrugged off the point, claiming that because he was aware that he was healthy and young he would eventually pull through. "I don't drink or smoke" he stated, and therefore was clear in his mind that he would survive the illness.